Efficacy of Photodynamic Therapy for Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy Associated with and without Pachychoroid Phenotypes.

Purpose: To compare the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in eyes with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) associated with and without pachychoroid phenotypes (pachychoroid PCV and nonpachychoroid PCV, respectively).

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Participants: Patients previously diagnosed with PCV and initially treated with PDT.

Baseline data from a multicenter, 5-year, prospective cohort study of Japanese age-related macular degeneration: an AMD2000 report.

Purpose: To report research participants' baseline characteristics in the AMD2000 study, a prospective, multicenter, 5-year, observational cohort study of Japanese age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The characteristics were determined using multimodal imaging.

Methods: Patients with AMD were recruited at 18 clinical sites in Japan between April 2006 and March 2009.

A 5-year multicenter prospective cohort study on the long-term visual prognosis and predictive factors for visual outcome in Japanese patients with age-related macular degeneration: the AMD2000 study.

Purpose: In this study (AMD2000), we aimed to determine the visual prognosis of Japanese patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Methods: This was a multicenter prospective observational cohort study. In total, 460 patients with AMD were recruited from April 2006 to March 2009 from 18 clinical trial sites in Japan.

A genome-wide association study identified a novel genetic loci STON1-GTF2A1L/LHCGR/FSHR for bilaterality of neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Bilateral neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes much more handicaps for patients than unilateral neovascular AMD. Although several AMD-susceptibility genes have been evaluated for their associations to bilaterality, genome-wide association study (GWAS) on bilaterality has been rarely reported. In the present study, we performed GWAS using neovascular AMD cases in East Asian.

RECURRENCE OF CHOROIDAL NEOVASCULARIZATION LESION ACTIVITY AFTER AFLIBERCEPT TREATMENT FOR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION.

Purpose: To examine the recurrence rate of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) lesion activity in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and associated factors after 1-year aflibercept treatment.

Methods: Age-related macular degeneration eyes with 1-year aflibercept fixed-regimen treatment and a follow-up period of at least 18 months from the initial aflibercept injection for treatment-naive exudative AMD were retrospectively evaluated. The recurrence rate was examined.

INCIDENCE AND CAUSES OF VISION LOSS DURING AFLIBERCEPT TREATMENT FOR NEOVASCULAR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION: One-Year Follow-up.

Purpose: To investigate the incidence rate, risk factors, and final outcomes of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who have experienced vision loss despite periodic aflibercept treatment.

Methods: Subjects with treatment-naive AMD were prospectively recruited and treated with three monthly injections followed by two monthly injections of aflibercept. The incidence rate and risk factors of more than two lines of vision loss at any visit were investigated.

Detection of Myopic Choroidal Neovascularization Using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography.

Purpose: To assess whether optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) can be used as an alternative to conventional fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) for the detection of myopic choroidal neovascularization (CNV).

Design: Validity and reliability analysis.

Methods: Twenty-eight eyes of 26 consecutive Japanese patients with exudative lesions associated with pathologic myopia were included in this institutional study.

Pachychoroid neovasculopathy and age-related macular degeneration.

Pachychoroid neovasculopathy is a recently proposed clinical entity of choroidal neovascularization (CNV). As it often masquerades as neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), it is currently controversial whether pachychoroid neovasculopathy should be distinguished from neovascular AMD. This is because its characteristics have yet to be well described.

MMP20 and ARMS2/HTRA1 Are Associated with Neovascular Lesion Size in Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe visual impairment. Despite treatment, a central scotoma often remains. The size of the scotoma depends on the lesion size of the choroidal neovascular membrane and significantly affects the patient's quality of life, and the lesion size of neovascularization also affects response to treatments.

The Contribution of Genetic Architecture to the 10-Year Incidence of Age-Related Macular Degeneration in the Fellow Eye.

Purpose: To correlate a genetic risk score based on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) susceptibility genes with the risk of AMD in the second eye.

Methods: This is a retrospective, open cohort study consisting of 891 unilateral AMD patients, who were followed for at least 12 months and recruited from three institutes. DNAs were genotyped using Illumina OmniExpress, HumanOmni2.

Identification of myopia-associated WNT7B polymorphisms provides insights into the mechanism underlying the development of myopia.

Myopia can cause severe visual impairment. Here, we report a two-stage genome-wide association study for three myopia-related traits in 9,804 Japanese individuals, which was extended with trans-ethnic replication in 2,674 Chinese and 2,690 Caucasian individuals. We identify WNT7B as a novel susceptibility gene for axial length (rs10453441, Pmeta=3.

Calcium, ARMS2 genotype, and Chlamydia pneumoniae infection in early age-related macular degeneration: a multivariate analysis from the Nagahama study.

Although various risk factors have been identified for the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), risk factors of early AMD have been relatively under studied. We aimed to investigate AMD risk factors by evaluating multiple factors in association with large drusen, an important component of AMD, simultaneously. In a community-based cross-sectional survey in Japan, 971 large drusen cases and 3,209 controls were compared for 65 variables, including systemic, environmental, and genetic factors.

One-year result of aflibercept treatment on age-related macular degeneration and predictive factors for visual outcome.

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of periodic injection of aflibercept in each subtype of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to explore the predictive factors for visual outcome in clinical settings.

Design: Prospective nonrandomized interventional case series.

Methods: Patients with AMD were recruited and were administered aflibercept injections once a month for 3 months followed by once every 2 months for 8 months.

New loci and coding variants confer risk for age-related macular degeneration in East Asians.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of blindness, but presents differently in Europeans and Asians. Here, we perform a genome-wide and exome-wide association study on 2,119 patients with exudative AMD and 5,691 controls, with independent replication in 4,226 patients and 10,289 controls, all of East Asian descent, as part of The Genetics of AMD in Asians (GAMA) Consortium. We find a strong association between CETP Asp442Gly (rs2303790), an East Asian-specific mutation, and increased risk of AMD (odds ratio (OR)=1.

Central blood pressure relates more strongly to retinal arteriolar narrowing than brachial blood pressure: the Nagahama Study.

Objectives: Although central blood pressure (BP) is considered to be more closely associated with large arterial remodeling and cardiovascular outcomes than brachial BP, few studies have investigated these associations with changes in small arteries. As morphological changes in retinal vessels might be associated with cardiovascular outcomes, we conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the association of central BP with retinal vessel caliber.

Methods: The study included 8054 Japanese participants.

Comprehensive replication of the relationship between myopia-related genes and refractive errors in a large Japanese cohort.

Purpose: We investigated the association between refractive error in a Japanese population and myopia-related genes identified in two recent large-scale genome-wide association studies.

Methods: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 51 genes that were reported by the Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia and/or the 23andMe database were genotyped in 3712 healthy Japanese volunteers from the Nagahama Study using HumanHap610K Quad, HumanOmni2.5M, and/or HumanExome Arrays.

Analysis of fundus shape in highly myopic eyes by using curvature maps constructed from optical coherence tomography.

Purpose: To evaluate fundus shape in highly myopic eyes using color maps created through optical coherence tomography (OCT) image analysis.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 182 highly myopic eyes from 113 patients. After obtaining 12 lines of 9-mm radial OCT scans with the fovea at the center, the Bruch's membrane line was plotted and its curvature was measured at 1-µm intervals in each image, which was reflected as a color topography map.

Three-dimensional optical coherence tomography evaluation of vascular changes at arteriovenous crossings.

Purpose: To study the three-dimensional morphologic features of retinal arteriovenous crossings with optical coherence tomography (OCT) and elucidate the vascular changes associated with crossing phenomena as seen on fundus photographs.

Methods: We examined 150 consecutive eyes with no ocular disease. In each eye, fundus photographs were taken, and one randomly selected arteriovenous crossing was examined by OCT.

Retinal vessel tortuosity associated with central retinal vein occlusion: an optical coherence tomography study.

Purpose: We studied morphologic changes of the retinal vasculature in eyes with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) through the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Methods: Major retinal vessels in 35 eyes from 35 consecutive patients with acute CRVO were examined prospectively and longitudinally with sequential thin sectioning and circumpapillary scanning. Anteroposterior venous tortuosity associated with CRVO was quantified on longitudinal OCT images of a randomly selected major temporal vein.

Association between ZIC2, RASGRF1, and SHISA6 genes and high myopia in Japanese subjects.

Purpose: We investigated the association of genetic variations, which were identified recently in a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) to confer risk of refractive error and common myopia in Caucasians, with high myopia in Japanese subjects.

Methods: The 5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the 5 genes TOX, RDH5, ZIC2, RASGRF1, and SHISA6, were genotyped in 1339 unrelated highly myopic Japanese patients and 3248 healthy Japanese participants in the Nagahama Study. In addition, genotypes were compared between high myopia patients without choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and patients with myopic CNV.

Vascular endothelial growth factor gene and the response to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment for choroidal neovascularization in high myopia.

Purpose: To investigate the association between the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene polymorphism and the response to anti-VEGF treatment for choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in highly myopic eyes.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Participants: A total of 357 unrelated highly myopic Japanese patients with axial lengths ≥26.

Association between the cholesteryl ester transfer protein gene and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy.

Purpose: To determine whether genetic variants in the lipid-associated genes are related to the risk of developing polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) in a Japanese population.

Methods: Five hundred eighty-one patients with PCV and 793 controls were enrolled in the study. Association analysis of allele and genotype frequencies was performed for the following single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in blood: rs493258 at the hepatic lipase gene (LIPC), rs3764261 at the cholesteryl ester transfer protein gene (CETP), and rs12678919 at the lipoprotein lipase gene (LPL).

Prevalence and characteristics of age-related macular degeneration in the Japanese population: the Nagahama study.

Purpose: To estimate the age- and sex-specific prevalence of early age-related macular degeneration (AMD; drusen and retinal pigment abnormalities) and late AMD (exudative AMD and geographic atrophy) in the Japanese population.

Design: Community-based, cross-sectional study.

Methods: The study was held in Nagahama, Japan, and included 6065 Japanese individuals (aged ≥50 years) recruited in 2008-2010.