Topographical Quantification of Retinal Fluid in Type 3 MNV and Associations With Short-Term Visual Outcomes

This study aims to quantify the volume of intraretinal fluid (IRF), subretinal fluid (SRF), and subretinal pigment epithelium (sub-RPE) fluid in treatment-naïve Type 3 macular neovascularization (MNV) eyes with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to investigate the correlation of these fluid volumes with visual acuity (VA) outcomes at baseline and following antivascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment.

Retrospective, clinical cohort study.

In this study, we analyzed patients diagnosed with exudative AMD and treatment-naïve Type 3 MNV undergoing a loading dose of anti-VEGF therapy. Using a validated deep-learning segmentation strategy, we processed optical coherence tomography (OCT) B-scans to segment and quantify IRF (i.e., both in the inner and outer retina), SRF, and sub-RPE fluid volumes at baseline. The study correlated baseline fluid volumes with baseline and short-term VA outcomes postloading dose of anti-VEGF injections.

Forty-six eyes from 46 patients were included in this study. Visual acuity was 0.51 ± 0.30 LogMAR at baseline and 0.33 ± 0.20 LogMAR after the loading dose of anti-VEGF (P = .001). Visual acuity at the follow-up visit was 0.40 ± 0.17 LogMAR in patients with no complete resolution of retinal fluid and 0.31 ± 0.20 LogMAR in eyes without retinal fluid after treatment (P = .225). In the multivariable analysis, the IRF volume in the inner retina (P = .032) and the distance of the MNV from the fovea (P = .037) were predictors of visual acuity at baseline. The baseline IRF volume in the inner retina also predicted the visual acuity at follow-up (P = .023).

The present study highlights the fluid volume in the inner retina as a crucial predictor of short-term visual outcomes in Type 3 MNV, underscoring the detrimental effect of IRF on neuroretinal structures.