Influence of myopic macular degeneration severity on treatment outcomes with intravitreal aflibercept in the MYRROR study.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To determine the influence of baseline myopic macular degeneration (MMD) severity on outcomes with intravitreal aflibercept (IVT-AFL) in patients with myopic choroidal neovascularization (CNV). METHODS: MYRROR was a randomized, double-masked study in patients with myopic CNV treated with IVT-AFL/sham over 48 weeks. At baseline/week 48, images were retrospectively graded for MMD. RESULTS: At baseline, 115 eyes had a valid MMD grading result; at week 48, grading results were available for 99 eyes [IVT-AFL (n = 78)/sham (n = 21)]. Severity of baseline MMD was distributed as follows category 1 19/115 (17%); category 2 67/115 (58%); category 3 22/115 (19%); category 4 7/115 (6%). Higher MMD category was associated with older age (nominal p = 0.007) and longer axial length (nominal p = 0.025). At week 48, patients in the mild and severe groups had visual acuity gains of +13.5 and +12.4 letters, respectively. Baseline MMD severity did not significantly affect visual/anatomical outcomes or number of treatments. Visual Functioning Questionnaire-25 scores improved more in mild (+5.6) versus severe (+0.4) MMD (nominal p = 0.03). There were no new safety events. CONCLUSIONS: Visual acuity gains, morphological outcomes and dosing frequency were not affected by baseline MMD severity in patients treated with IVT-AFL. A benefit with IVT-AFL treatment was observed for all baseline MMD stages included in this study.