Relationship Between Visual Acuity and Retinal Thickness During Anti–Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Therapy for Retinal Diseases

Purpose To investigate the relationship between best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) in eyes receiving ranibizumab for 3 common retinal diseases. Design Retrospective analysis of clinical trial data. Methods Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study BCVA and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography–measured CRT of 387 eyes of 345 patients enrolled in 6 prospective clinical trials for management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), and retinal vein occlusion (RVO) were evaluated by Pearson correlation and linear regression. Results At baseline, there was a small correlation between BCVA and CRT in pooled AMD trial data (r = −0.24). A medium correlation was identified in pooled DME trial data (r = −0.42). No correlation was found in pooled RVO trial data. At month 12, no correlation was found between changes from baseline in BCVA and CRT in pooled AMD trial data. Medium correlations were identified in both pooled DME (r = −0.45) and pooled RVO (r = −0.35) trial data at month 12. Changes in BCVA and CRT associated with edema recurrence upon transition from monthly to pro re nata (PRN) dosing were correlated in AMD (r = −0.27) and RVO (r = −0.72) trials, but not in DME trial data. Conclusion DME demonstrated a convincing relationship between BCVA and CRT. Correlations appear to be more complex in AMD and RVO. At the inflection point between monthly and PRN dosing, when recurrence of edema is anticipated in many patients, CRT appears strongly correlated with loss of BCVA in RVO.