Features Associated With Vision in Eyes With Subfoveal Fibrosis From Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

PURPOSE: To report the characteristics and correlation of visual acuity in eyes treated for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and developed fibrosis.

DESIGN

Case-control study.

METHODS

Three hundred fifty-six treatment-naive nAMD eyes that were treated for 12 months were included. Fibrosis was defined as present if well-defined hyperreflective material (HRM) were present between the neurosensory retina and the Bruch membrane on optical coherence tomography (OCT) that correlated with well-defined regions of yellowish pallor on fundus photography and/or staining on fluorescence angiography. OCT features of subfoveal fibrosis and the overlying retina were correlated with visual acuity at month 12.

RESULTS

Sixty-three eyes (20.3%) developed incident fibrosis at month 12. Compared with eyes that did not develop fibrosis, these eyes had lower baseline vision (49 vs 54 letters, P = .02) and more of them had type 2 macular neovascularization (15.0 vs 8.8%, P = .03), larger lesion area (29.6 vs 15.1 mm2, P = .02), and subretinal hemorrhage ≥4 disc diameters (44.4% vs 19.8%, P < .01). Visual acuity was worse in the incident fibrosis compared with the group that never developed fibrosis by month 12. (-1.4±17.1 versus +6.0±17.4 letters, P < .01). In 83 eyes that had subfoveal fibrosis, better vision was associated with intact ellipsoid zone-external limiting membrane complex (β coefficient 29.4, 95% CI 14.2-44.6, P < .01), whereas worse vision was associated with retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)-involving HRM, HRM above the RPE, and width of HRM (β coefficients -25.4 [95% CI -36.3 to -14.6], P < .01; -23.5 [95% CI -39.0 to -7.9], P < .01; and -3.8 [95% CI -7.2 to -0.4], P = .03, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Although fibrosis is associated with poorer visual outcome, preservation of external limiting membrane and level of fibrosis relative to the RPE are associated with visual outcomes.