Publications by authors named "Andrea Montesel"

Purpose: To report one-year real-world evidence on intraocular inflammation (IOI) adverse events (AEs) in patients undergoing faricimab therapy in a tertiary care hospital.

Methods: A retrospective review of electronic medical records was conducted for patients receiving faricimab treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME) at Moorfields Eye Hospital between September 1st, 2022, and August 31st, 2023. The primary outcome was the incidence of IOI (excluding endophthalmitis).

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What is known • Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is widely used for autoimmune disorders but is associated with the risk of retinal toxicity. • Early detection of retinal structural changes due to HCQ toxicity remains challenging, and cumulative HCQ dose as a risk factor has conflicting clinical relevance. What Is New • Higher cumulative HCQ doses are significantly associated with thinner outer retinal layers (foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal regions).

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Purpose: To describe the prevalence of subretinal transient hyporeflectivity (STHR) in exudative neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and its response to a loading phase of aflibercept.

Methods: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans of treatment-naïve nAMD patients captured at baseline and after a loading phase of aflibercept were graded for presence of STHR, defined as a small, well-defined, round, subretinal, hyporeflective area, delimited between the ellipsoid zone (EZ) and the retinal pigmented epithelium/Bruch membrane complex. OCT parameters recorded were macular neovascularisation (MNV) subtypes, location of retinal fluids (subretinal fluid, SRF and intraretinal fluid, IRF), central retinal and choroidal thickness.

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Purpose: To study associations of optical coherence tomography (OCT) features with presenting visual acuity (VA) in treatment naive neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).

Methods: Patients with nAMD initiated on aflibercept therapy were recruited from December 2019 to August 2021. Demographic and OCT (Spectralis, Heidelberg Engineering) features associated with good VA (VA ≥ 68 ETDRS letters, Snellen ≥ 6/12) and poor VA (VA < 54 letters, Snellen < 6/18) were analysed using Generalised Estimating Equations to account for inter-eye correlation.

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Purpose: To evaluate quantitative morphological changes in macular neovascularisation (MNV) network after aflibercept therapy in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) patients.

Methods: Consecutive treatment-naïve patients with optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography confirmed MNV due to nAMD who completed a loading phase of intravitreal aflibercept injections. A quantitative analysis of the vascular network remodelling was performed using a computational software (Angiotool).

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Purpose: To report the clinical features and treatment outcomes of patients with macular hole coexistent with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment surgically treated with pars plana vitrectomy and inverted internal limiting membrane flap technique.

Methods: Eleven consecutive patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment and macular hole who underwent vitrectomy and internal limiting membrane peeling with the inverted flap technique between December 2017 and February 2021 were retrospectively evaluated. The main outcome measures were retinal reattachment rate, macular hole closure rate, and postoperative best-corrected visual acuity.

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Purpose: To develop a fully automated algorithm for accurate detection of fovea location in atrophic age-related macular degeneration (AMD), based on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) scans.

Methods: Image processing was conducted on a cohort of patients affected by geographic atrophy (GA). SD-OCT images (cube volume) from 55 eyes (51 patients) were extracted and processed with a layer segmentation algorithm to segment Ganglion Cell Layer (GCL) and Inner Plexiform Layer (IPL).

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Purpose: To describe a unique unilateral association between an iris stromal tumor and a macular focal choroidal excavation.

Case Description: A 40-year old patient presented with a small iris tumor associated with a unilateral macular lesion disclosed during a routine ophthalmologic examination. The patient was asymptomatic and visual function was not affected.

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Purpose: To investigate the visual and anatomical impact of intravitreal injection treatment deferral because of the COVID-19 lockdown on patients affected by neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 314 patients (394 eyes) who were scheduled to receive the impact of intravitreal injections during the Swiss lockdown. We compared patients who continued to receive scheduled impact of intravitreal treatment without clinical consultation (Group Continue ‟C"; n = 215) and patients for whom the impact of intravitreal treatment was completely deferred (Group Stop, ‟S"; n = 179).

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To report the early efficacy and safety outcomes of treatment with intravitreal injections of brolucizumab (IVT-B) in patients presenting neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) in a tertiary clinical setting. A retrospective case series of patients that received IVT-B with a minimum of two injections performed and at least 4 weeks of follow-up after last injection. Nineteen eyes of 19 patients were included.

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Purpose: To develop and validate an automatic retinal pigment epithelial and outer retinal atrophy (RORA) progression prediction model for nonexudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) cases in optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans.

Methods: Longitudinal OCT data from 129 eyes/119 patients with RORA was collected and separated into training and testing groups. RORA was automatically segmented in all scans and additionally manually annotated in the test scans.

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Background: The purpose of this study was to describe early changes in the morphology of pigment epithelium detachments (PED) after an intravitreal injection of Brolucizumab into eyes with macular neovascularization secondary to exudative age-related macular degeneration (e-AMD).

Method: We included twelve eyes of 12 patients with PED secondary to e-AMD which were not responding to prior anti-VEGF treatments. An ophthalmic examination and an assessment of PED-horizontal maximal diameter (PED-HMD), PED-maximum high (PED-MH) and macular neovascularization (MNV) flow area (MNV-FA) by the means of structural optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT Angiography (OCT-A) were performed at baseline, as well as 1, 7, 14 and 30 days after the injection.

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We report a case of central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) in a patient with a previous history of severe COVID-19 disease. This disease has been associated with inflammatory-induced homeostasis changes leading to endothelial dysfunction and a procoagulant state with multi-organ involvement, but the burden of thromboembolic complications in COVID-19 patients is currently unknown. The pathogenesis of retinal artery occlusions is a multifactorial process where inflammation and hypercoagulation state are established risk factors.

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Purpose: To identify the causes of failure of the different surgical corneal graft techniques: penetrating keratoplasty (PK), deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK), Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) and Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK).

Methods: This multicentric retrospective study enrolled a consecutive cohort of patients who had undergone any type of keratoplasty between 2001 and 2016. The clinical data were obtained from the patient's medical records, following ethical guidelines, permissions and data protection.

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Corneal transplantation is the most commonly performed human tissue transplantation procedure worldwide. Because of the large number of transplants, corneal graft failure has become one of the most common indications for corneal transplantation. The relatively recently developed lamellar transplant techniques have brought about specific potential complications leading to graft failure that may require different approaches to repeat transplantation other than penetrating keratoplasty.

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Corneal graft surgery is one of the most successful forms of human solid-tissue transplantation, and nowadays, there is a worldwide expansion of the surgical volume of corneal grafts. This surgery is continuously evolving, with new surgical techniques and postoperative treatments that have considerably increased the chance of survival for the grafts. Despite the high rate of success, corneal transplantation is still complicated by a relevant risk of graft failure.

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Purpose: To investigate indications, outcomes and changes in clinical patterns of keratoplasty surgery in a Spanish tertiary eye center.

Setting: Vissum Instituto Oftalmológico, Alicante, Spain.

Methods: A retrospective review was performed on clinical records of patients that underwent any kind of corneal transplant from 2001 to 2017 in the study center.

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Background/objectives: To compare the efficacy of intraoperative localized and 360° laser retinopexy in cases of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) treated with pars plana vitrectomy and air tamponade.

Subjects/methods: In this interventional, prospective, randomized, comparative study, 93 consecutive cases of RRD were enroled. After randomization 48 eyes received circumferential, while 45 underwent localized intraoperative laser retinopexy.

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Purpose: To examine retinal displacement after vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling for epiretinal membrane treatment, and to determine the correlation between the extent of displacement and the ganglion cell layer thickness changes.

Methods: Thirty-nine consecutive patients were evaluated. Optical coherence tomography was performed preoperatively, and 2 and 6 months postoperatively.

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Purpose: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment of secondary graft failure in penetrating keratoplasty (PK) by performing Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) without host descemetorhexis.

Methods: This is a retrospective case series study of 8 eyes from 8 patients who underwent non host Descemet membrane stripping DMEK surgery under a previously failed PK. The DMEK graft diameter was either matched or 0.

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Introduction: To report a case of ocular dirofilariasis in Central Italy (Pisa, Tuscany) and review the previous cases of ocular dirofilariasis reported in Italy.

Case Description: A 67-year-old man complained about recurrent ocular redness and discomfort previously treated as conjunctivitis. The slit-lamp examination showed a round, translucent cystic swelling under the bulbar conjunctiva of the right eye, near the lateral canthus.

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