One-year results of intravitreal ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration and clinical responses of various subgroups.

PURPOSE: To report 1-year clinical outcomes of intravitreal ranibizumab treatment for choroidal neovascularization (CNV) due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to identify predictive factors that may influence visual acuity (VA) outcomes in Korean patients.

METHODS: Sixty patients (64 eyes) with subfoveal CNV were followed up over 12 months after intravitreal injection (0.5 mg) of ranibizumab at baseline and subsequent injections on an as-needed basis. The VA outcomes over 12 months were compared with baseline VA and evaluated across subgroups based on sex, age, baseline VA, CNV size, CNV type, and presence or absence of systemic disease and prior photodynamic therapy.

RESULTS: VA improved or remained stable in 46 of 64 eyes (71.9%) at 12 months. Subgroup analysis showed that both baseline VA and CNV size influenced VA outcomes after ranibizumab treatment (P = 0.039, P = 0.042, respectively). However, the patients' sex (P = 0.643), baseline age (P = 0.361), CNV type (P = 0.940), and the presence or absence of systemic disease (P = 0.775) and prior photodynamic therapy (P = 0.890) did not affect VA outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: Intravitreal injections of ranibizumab improve mean VA in patients with subfoveal CNV secondary to AMD, and baseline VA and CNV lesion size were predictive factors of VA outcomes after ranibizumab treatment in Korean patients.