Short-term Outcomes Of Photodynamic Therapy For Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Introduction: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the important diseases because of its severely disturbed vision.Recently, photodynamic therapy (PDT) which is laser therapy performed after infusing verteporfin (light-activated drug) has developed for treatment of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) of AMD. However, PDT was applied only for the patients who had predominantly-classic CNV and visual acuity between 0.1-0.5. In this study, short-term outcome of PDT in Japan was reported and new indication for PDT was discussed.Methods: AMD was diagnosed through indirect ophthalmoscope, fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography.The patients were divided into 2 groups; one had vision worse than 0.1 and other had vision better than 0.1. The patients also divided into 3 groups according to type of CNV; Predominantly-classic CNV (P-CNV), Minimally classic CNV (M-CNV) and Occult CNV (O-CNV). After intravenous verteporfin infusion of 6 mg/m2 body surface area, 689 nm of semiconductor laser at a intensity of 50 J/cm2 was irradiated to the lesion for 83 sec. After treatment, the patients were kept away from light for 48hrs after treatment, and returned 1week later and every 3 months.When the lesion expanded or leakage increased, patients were retreated with PDT. The main evaluating indexes were visual acuity and leakage of CNV.Results: Totally 45 eyes of 45 patients were followed up for at least 3 months after PDT. The patients were consisted of 29 males and 16 females. The mean age was 71.1±8.8 years old. Visual acuity was improved or...