Intravitreal injection (IVI) of anti-angiogenic drugs is one of the most common therapeutic procedures in ophthalmology. In recent years, a new non-contact study method has been developed — anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT), which allows the formation of three-dimensional images of the lens and provides more detailed information about its structure and morphology.

PURPOSE

This study uses optical coherence tomography method to analyze the risks of developing changes in the posterior lens capsule in patients after IVI of an anti-angiogenic drug.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study involved 100 people (14 men and 86 women) with a natural lens and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). The average age was 70.57±7.98 years. During the study (12 months), all patients underwent IVI of an anti-angiogenic drug aflibercept in the treat-and-extend (T&E) mode. All subjects were divided into 2 groups: with a total number of IVI less than 10 — group 1 (50 patients), and more than 10 IVI — group 2 (50 patients, of which 49 were included in the study). All patients underwent OCT using the Optopol REVO NX device (Poland) with the Anterior B-scan Wide protocol before inclusion in the study, as well as after 3, 6 and 12 months.

RESULTS

It was found that the risk of developing a posterior lens capsule rupture, visualized using OCT, depends on the total number of IVI (correlation coefficient 0.473 p=0.001): the more IVI, the higher the probability that damage to the posterior capsule will occur after the next IVI, and after the 15th injection the risk of developing damage to the posterior capsule increases sharply.

CONCLUSION

The astudy analyzed the risk factors for the development of posterior lens capsule damage that can be detected using OCT, and presented three risk groups for the development of rupture (or damage) of the posterior lens capsule depending on the number of intravitreal injections performed.