Study finds early treatment may halt VMA/VMT progression

Largest retrospective review of patients with vitreomacular adhesion (VMA) and vitreomacular traction (VMT) confirms that early treatment initiation may stop disease progression and lead to better visual function outcome.

Prof. Peter Stalmans, MD, of the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, provided details of the largest retrospective, observational study to date that looked at his “real-world” experience with patients with VMA, VMT, and macular hole (MH). Prof. Dr. Stalmans presented his data at the recent EURETINA annual meeting of European Society of Retina Specialists in Hamburg, Germany.

The retrospective study reviewed 509 patients presenting with VMA, VMT, MH with/without VMA, and with/without visual symptoms. The study leveraged data collected from electronic medical records gathered at the center between July 2009 and May 2013.

Prof. Dr. Stalmans said the study has found that VMA is a progressive disease, with 16.4% of the eyes diagnosed with VMA progressed to VMT within one year; exact time and/or impact of progression are patient dependent; and spontaneous resolution of VMA occurred in 20% of patients with VMT. The study pointed out that early treatment may stop further disease progression and improve visual function outcome.

Prof. Dr. Stalmans works at a large, tertiary care ophthalmology center in Leuven. The center sees 50,000 ambulatory patients every year and conducts around 2,500 intravitreal injections and 7,000 surgical procedures per annum.

“Based on our findings, I believe that early treatment of these patients may be important if we are to help them by resolving debilitating symptoms, such as metamorphopsia, and further sight -hreatening complications, such as macular hole,” explained Prof. Dr. Peter Stalmans. “My own experience of treating patients experiencing metamorphopsia early with Jetrea (ThomboGenics) has been extremely good with the vast majority of patients experiencing resolution of their traction.”

“For the first time, we are able to look at ‘real-life’ data provided from a tertiary center,” added Patrik De Haes, MD, CEO at ThromboGenics. “We are pleased to see how the results highlight the opportunity for Jetrea as an early treatment option for those patients who would normally only be observed. These new data and ‘real-life’ insights will help us to further educate the community about the risk of disease progression and the patient benefit of early treatment.”