Hyperreflective foci in OCT image as a biomarker of poor prognosis in diabetic macular edema patients treating with Conbercept in China

• Main Authors: Shulin Liu, Desai Wang, Fei Chen, Xuedong Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-07-01
• Series: BMC Ophthalmology
• Subjects: Hyperreflective foci; Diabetic macular edema; Anti-VEGF; Conbercept
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12886-019-1168-0

Abstract Purpose To investigate the dynamic changes of hyperreflective foci (HF) in diabetic macular edema (DME) patients during the intravitreal Conbercept treatment in China. Methods DME Patients receiving intravitreal Conbercept (IVC) injections during the year 2016–2017 were retrospectively investigated. Thirteen patients (26 eyes) were recruited in this study. They received IVC once a month for 3 consecutive months. The number and location of HFs, the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central macular thickness (CMT) at each visit were analyzed and compared. Results After the first injection, BCVA (LogMAR) was increased from 0.75 ± 0.48 to 0.43 ± 0.24 (p < 0.05), CMT improved from 575.9 ± 191.9 to 388.2 ± 198.5 μm (p = 0.014). However, the BCVA and CMT had no statistical difference after the second and third injection as compared with those after the first injection respectively. The baseline number of HFs was 5.39 ± 4.24, 5.15 ± 5.17 and 0.88 ± 1.90 in the inner retinal, outer retinal and subretinal layer respectively. The number of HFs in these three retinal layers decreased significantly after the first injection (p = 0.0045, p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0045, respectively). However, after the second injection, only the number of HFs in the inner retinal layer experienced a further decrease. After the third injection, no statistically significant HFs changes was observed in each retinal layers. Correlation analysis showed that there was a positive significant correlation between the baseline number of HFs in the inner retina, outer retina, subretina and final BCVA (r = 0.571, p = 0.002; r = 0.464, p = 0.017; r = 0.405, p = 0.04 respectively). There was also a significant positive correlation between outer retinal HFs reduction, total retinal HFs reduction and increase of BCVA (r = 0.40, p = 0.043 and r = 0.393, p = 0.04 respectively). There were no severe ocular adverse reactions or systemic adverse events. Conclusions Conbercept is effective and safe in the treatment of DME. HFs can act as a biomarker of poor final visual outcome.