Multifocal Electroretinography For Patients With Choroidal Neovascularization Treated With Photodynamic Therapy

PURPOSEMaculopathy caused by choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is a group of diseases diffcult to treat at present. Hemorrhage , exudation, retinal pigment epithelium detachment and neurosensory retinal detachment caused by CNV and scar formation at last were the main cause of blindness in CNV diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Recently, photodynamic therapy (PDT) provided us with a new means to treat this kind of diseases and has been used in clinic. It is considered that the mechanism of PDT used for treatment of CNV was that the photosensitizer which injected in the body was specially combined with neovascular endothelial cells and more stagnated in the lumens of CNV. The photochemical reaction occurred after exposure in a definite wave length laser. The endothelial cells of CNV were then damaged and the lumens of CNV were blocked.The leakage of blood constituent stopped or decreased and the more damage of photoreceptor cells by CNV was controlled. Our study aimed to efficiently estimate retinal function with multifocal electroretinogram of the maculae in eyes with CNV. METHODS1 Thirty-one patients (33 eyes) with wet AMD were examined with visual acuity, multifocal electroretinogram (mf-ERG), optical coherence tomography (OCT) before and 7 d to 3 m after PDT, fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) before and 3 m after PDT. According to examination results of FFA and ICGA, patients were classified as the predominantly classic CNV (the area of classic CNV more than 50% of the lesion area) group (12 patients, 12 eyes) and the minimally classic CNV (the area of classic CNV from 0% to 50% of the lesion area) group (19 patients, 21 eyes). The changes of mfERG N1 and P1 wave peak amplitude densities of two groups were analysed with repeated measurement analysis of...