An 8-year follow-up of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment with a treat-and-extend modality for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: To investigate long-term visual results of treatment with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) following a treat-and-extend regimen.

Methods: Retrospective review of 155 patients who initiated treatment with bevacizumab for nAMD in one eye. At the final 8-year visit, 40 patients (26%) remained for follow-up.

Recovery of plasma vascular endothelial growth factor concentrations during aflibercept loading phase and after the transition to bimonthly treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Aims: To provide data on plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentration during three consecutive monthly intravitreal aflibercept injections and after transition to bimonthly treatment in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).

Methods: Sixteen consecutive treatment-naïve Caucasian patients with nAMD were included in the study. The treatment consisted of one intravitreal aflibercept (2 mg) injection every 28 days for three consecutive months followed by a fourth injection 8 weeks later.

Tubular absorption of filtered cystatin-C in the rat kidney.

As shown in previous studies, the two basic proteins aprotinin (Ap, 6.5 kDa) and cystatin (Cy, 13.3 kDa) can be used to estimate whole kidney glomerular filtration rate by measuring the renal cortical uptake relative to plasma concentration after i.

Renal hemodynamics during development of hypertension in young spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Background/aims: Cross-transplantation studies between animals with genetic hypertension and normotensive animals indicate a key role of the kidney in development of hypertension, and studies in young spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) have shown reduced glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and renal blood flow (RBF) for a short period at the age of 4-6 weeks during blood pressure increase. We tested the hypothesis that a decline in GFR during development of hypertension in SHR might be more pronounced in juxtamedullary cortex than other cortical zones.

Methods: By use of the aprotinin method, total and zonal cortical GFR was measured in anaesthetized Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and SHR at the ages of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks.

Effect of exogenous and endogenous angiotensin II on intrarenal distribution of glomerular filtration rate in rats.

Different changes in glomerular filtration rates (GFR) in deep and superficial glomeruli have been suggested to influence renal NaCl excretion and concentrating ability. Angiotensin II (AngII) has been implicated in such changes, but the experimental evidence has been conflicting, probably because of the methodological limitation of just one 'snapshot' measurement of local GFR per kidney. We have therefore studied the effect of AngII and AT(1)-receptor blockade on glomerular filtration in outer, middle and inner cortex (OC, MC and IC, respectively) in pentobarbitone-anaesthetised rats using the aprotinin (Ap) method, providing control and experimental measurements in the same kidney.

Attenuated buffering of renal perfusion pressure variation in juxtamedullary cortex in SHR.

Renal tissue damage is substantially more pronounced in the juxtamedullary than in the superficial cortex in hypertensive rats, and the pathogenesis of the morphological changes are only partly understood. Glomerular capillary pressure (P(GC)) is increased, and steady-state autoregulation is normal in the deep renal cortex. We tested the hypothesis that the transient period from one pressure level to another may induce greater variation in local perfusion before stable autoregulation is established.