Optical coherence tomography findings during pegaptanib therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration

Background: To evaluate macular thickness measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) during pegaptanib therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods: For this prospective, nonrandomized, observational case series, 41 eyes from 41 patients with neovascular AMD received intravitreous pegaptanib (11 mg) injections repeated every 6 weeks. The primary outcome measure was central foveal thickness measured by OCT. Secondary outcomes were fluorescein angiographic leakage and visual acuity. Results: Mean thickness of the central area on OCT decreased from 340 +/- 24 mu m to 299 14 Am after 12 weeks of pegaptanib injections. This represents a reduction in thickening of 32%. Fluorescein angiograms with definite leakage decreased from 100% to 81 %, and mean visual acuity decreased from 20/116 to 20/120. Conclusions: Intravitreal injections of pegaptanib at 6-week intervals result in a moderate reduction of central foveal thickness in eyes with subfoveal neovascular AMD. This presents a; modest effect relative to that reported with other anti-angiogenic agents.