ABSTRACT

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.

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).

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.

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.