[Examination of the effectiveness of heart rate control using intravenous ß-blocker in 64-slice coronary computed tomography angiography].

The purpose of this study is to clarify the effectiveness of the use of ß-blocker in coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). In 1783 patients, heart rate was controlled by propranolol injection to patients with heart rates of 61 bpm or more. As a result, the scan heart rate (58.8±6.5 bpm) decreased significantly compared with the initial heart rate (72.7±9.4 bpm). Prospective gating method was used by 61.9% including 64.3% of the intravenous ß-blocker injection group. Moreover, daily use of oral ß-blocker had influence on reduction of the scan heart rate (daily use group: 60.1±6.5 bpm vs. unuse group: 58.5±6.3 bpm p<0.01). When we evaluated the image quality of CCTA by the score, the improvement of the score was obviously admitted by 65 bpm or less of the scan heart rate. The ratio of scan heart rate that was controlled by 65 bpm or less was decreased in the initial heart rate groups that were 81 bpm or more. The incidence of adverse reactions by the propranolol injection was few, and these instances only involved slight symptoms. Therefore, heart rate control with the use of ß-blocker is useful for the image quality improvement of CCTA. This form of treatment can be safely enforced.

Four-year outcomes of intravitreal aflibercept treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration using a treat-and-extend regimen in Japanese patients.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to determine the 4-year visual and anatomic outcomes of intravitreal aflibercept treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using a treat-and-extend (TAE) regimen. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 39 patients with neovascular AMD who were treated continuously with intravitreal aflibercept injections using the TAE regimen for at least 4 years. The outcome measures were the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central macular thickness (CMT) on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. The BCVAs were measured as decimal values and converted to the corresponding Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letter scores for statistical analysis. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the differences in BCVAs and CMTs. RESULTS: The mean ETDRS letter scores improved significantly from 63.9 at baseline to 70.4, 67.8, 67.2, and 67.3 at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years, respectively. The mean baseline CMT was 380 µm, which decreased significantly to 229, 231, 221, and 210 µm at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years, respectively. The mean numbers of injections were 7.9, 6.0, 5.5, and 5.4 at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years, respectively. The percentages of patients with a treatment interval of 12 weeks or more were 46.2%, 46.2%, 43.6%, and 46.2% at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years, respectively. At year 4, 30.8% of the patients had a treatment interval of 7 weeks or less, whereas 25.6% had 16 weeks or more. CONCLUSION: Intravitreal aflibercept TAE treatment may be an effective and efficient method for treating patients with neovascular AMD up to 4 years of follow-up. The TAE regimen is a potential tool to optimize appropriate treatment intervals, avoiding both undertreatment and overtreatment of neovascular AMD.