Short-term peripapillary structural and vascular changes following anti-VEGF vs. Dexamethasone intravitreal therapy in patients with DME.

PURPOSE: To evaluate short-term peripapillary structural and vascular changes in DME after treatment with dexamethasone implant (DEX-I) and anti-VEGFs using OCT-A.

METHODS: Sixty-five patients with naïve center-involving DME were enrolled. 33 of sixty five patients (group 1) underwent with single DEX-I 0.7 mg (Ozurdex, Allergan, Inc., USA), 32 of sixty-five (group 2) underwent with intravitreal injection of aflibercept 0.5 mg (Eylea, Bayer, Genentech, San Francisco, USA). The OCT acquisition was completed at the following visits: (i) "T1 visit" corresponding to the intravitreal injection of DEX-I or aflibercept in patients with naïve center-involving DME (ii) "T2 visit" corresponding to the examination performed 2 weeks after intravitreal injection of aflibercept and 1 month after DEX-I. The parameters analyzed were: (i) RPC vasculature density (VD); (ii) peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness, and (iii) intraocular pressure (IOP).

RESULTS: The RPC analysis showed a VD increase at T2 in both groups, although values did not reach statistical significance (48.12± 4.17 and 49.04 ± 4.23; P = 0.081 in Group 1 and 46.93± 3.16 and 47.17 ± 3.70; P = 0.087 in Group 2). Likewise, the pRNFL thickness and IOP fluctuations did not show statistically significant changes in in both groups among the different study visits.

CONCLUSIONS: After intravitreal injection (anti-VEGF or DEX-I), no significant short-term changes were found in peripapillary microvasculature, IOP and pRNFL thickness in diabetic eyes treated with anti-VEGF or DEX-I.