Short-term choroidal vascular changes after aflibercept therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration

The purpose of this study was to evaluate choroidal vascular changes in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) treated with aflibercept injection over a 3-month period.

Enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography scans of 60 eyes with treatment-naïve nAMD and 60 unaffected fellow eyes were retrospectively analyzed. Data was collected at baseline and after 3 monthly intravitreal injections of aflibercept. The ImageJ software was used to binarize OCT scans and measure total choroid area (TCA), luminal area (LA), and stromal area (SA). Choroidal vascularity index (CVI) was defined as the ratio of LA to TCA.

After treatment, subfoveal choroidal thickness (CT) in nAMD eyes significantly decreased from 210. 6 ± 61.6 to 194.6 ± 58.7 μm (P < 0.001), TCA from 1.620 ± 0.502 to 1.500 ± 0.451 mm² (P < 0.001), LA from 1.075 ± 0.335 to 0.985 ± 0.307 mm² (P < 0.001), SA from 0.545 ± 0.176 to 0.516 ± 0.153 mm² (P = 0.005), and CVI from 66.36 ± 2.89 to 65.46 ± 2.87% (P = 0.009). The decrease of CVI after treatment was significantly correlated with baseline CVI (Rs = 0.466, P < 0.001), but not with the change in BCVA and presence of dry macula after treatment (always P > 0.05).

Choroidal thickness and vascularity significantly decreased after treatment with aflibercept in nAMD eyes. Besides the pharmacologic effect on the neovascular lesion, aflibercept may induce vascular changes also on the underlying choroid.