ASRS recap: 15 July presentations in review
Metformin may provide AMD protection; DAVIO presents positive 12-month results; TOWER study reveals new imaging index for AMD.
TOWER study: A new index to measure retinal fluid fluctuations in the retina in wet AMD
Investigators from Thailand led by Yodpong Chantarasorn, MD, who is from the Department of Ophthalmology, Vajira Hospital, Navamindradhirajh University, Bangkok, took a close look at retinal fluid fluctuations in Thai patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and devised a better way to measure the fluctuations in the central subfield thickness (CST).
Until now, there has been no adequate way to measure fluid fluctuations in the eye via imaging. This is important because variations in the foveal thickness during treatment with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs can lead to worse structural/functional outcomes in affected patients. The currently used method, which provides the standard deviation of the magnitude of the variations in the foveal thickness, may not represent the CST fluctuations, the authors suggested.
Dr Rishi Singh is presenting, “12-Month Results of EYP-1901 Vorolanib in a Bioerodible Durasert Insert for nAMD: The DAVIO Trial.” The Phase 1 trial showed a reduction in treatment burden over 12 months as well as a favorable safety profile.
Metformin may have a protective effect against AMD
A frequently prescribed drug to treat diabetes, metformin, may have the potential to be a novel therapy for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), reported Dimitra Skondra MD, PhD. She is Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, and Director of the J. Terry Ernest Ocular Imaging Center, Founder/Leader, Retina Microbiome Team, Vitreoretinal Service, The University of Chicago.
This protective effect is known to be present against other age-associated diseases, but the importance of such a finding in diabetes cannot be over-emphasized.
She and her colleagues conducted a retrospective case-control study to take a close look at the the relationship betweenmetformin and other antidiabetic medications in patients with AMD. The authors used a large health insurance claims database to identify patients who had been newly diagnosed with AMD between January 2008 and December 2017.
A total of 312,404 patients and 312,376 matched controls were included in the study.
New tool emerges for predicting the risk of vision loss from diabetic retinopathy
Investigators from the from Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Eye Monitoring Center and Department of Research and Evaluation, reported the accuracy of a new tool for predicting the 3-year risk of vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Bobeck Modjtahedi, MD, the lead author of the study, reported that the future risk of the development of new-onset VTDR, diabetic macular edema (DME), and proliferative DR (PDR) can be predicted using the patient’s retinopathy status and hemoglobin A1c value.
The researchers believe that this tool will prove to be valuable for more targeted monitoring and treatment intervention into patients with type 2 diabetes with the goal of preventing vision loss.
RGX-314 demonstrates DRSS improvements in patients with DME, NPDR
Dr Charles Wykoff presented a talk entitled, “Suprachoroidal Delivery of RGX-314 Gene Therapy for Diabetic Retinopathy: Phase II ALTITUDE Study.” The trial demonstrated large improvements for patients with diabetic macular oedema (DMO) and non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), with notable improvements according to the Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale (DRSS).
