Objective:
To evaluate the effect of the initial status of hard exudates on visual and anatomical outcomes in diabetic macular edema (DME) following intravitreal antivascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatment.
Material and Method:
In this retrospective study, 80 eyes of 80 patients who treated with anti-VEGF due to DME were examined. All of the patients underwent at least three anti-VEGF treatment. The baseline, follow-up and last visit optical coherence tomography parameters and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were all noted.
Results:
The mean baseline central macular thickness (CMT) was 415±95 μm and mean baseline BCVA was 0.67±0.52 LogMAR. Average number of injections was 4.1±1.6. %35 of patients had exudates before the treatment. The improvement in BCVA was correlated with initial BCVA, initial CMT and absence of exudates and this correlations were statically significant (p=0.000,p=0.030 and p=0.047 respectively). The improvement in CMT was statically significant correlated with initial CMT and initial BCVA, however presence of hard exudates did not effect CMT improvement (p=0.000,p=0.016 and p=0.214 respectively).
Conclusion:
Although the presence of exudates was found to be a negative predictor for visual outcomes, it did not have any effects on anatomical outcomes in patients with DME under anti-VEGF treatment.
Keywords: Diabetic macular edema, anti-VEGF treatment, exudates, central macular thickness