Effect of leaking perifoveal microaneurysms on resolution of diabetic macular edema treated by combination therapy using anti-vascular endothelial growth factor and short pulse focal/grid laser photocoagulation.

Purpose: The effect of combination therapy using intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) injections and short pulse focal/grid laser photocoagulation was evaluated for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME).

Methods: The current investigation was a preliminary single-arm, open-label, prospective clinical study conducted on 21 eyes at 4 sites in Japan. Treatment protocol consisted of two phases. The induction IVR phase included two monthly IVRs followed by PRN IVR phase in which additional IVR was administered if the central macular thickness (CMT) exceeded 300 μm. One week after each IVR in both phases, short pulse focal/grid laser was delivered to treat residual leakage outside of the fovea (>500 μm) and reduce edema fluid influx. At the 6-month endpoint, the effects of treatment were examined in terms of best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), CMT, and required number of IVR injections in eyes with or without perifoveal leaking microaneurysms (MAs).

Results: In eyes with initial BCVA ≤70 letters, mean BCVA was significantly ameliorated by 7.0 ± 7.4 letters (P = 0.0324) and mean CMT improved significantly by 174.8 ± 105.0 µm (P = 0.0005). Both BCVA improvement (P = 0.8693) and CMT reduction (P = 0.9336) were comparable between MA(-) and MA(+) groups. The MA(-) group required significantly fewer PRN-IVR injections than did the MA(+) group over the 6-month study period (mean 3.4 ± 1.6 vs. 5.3 ± 0.9, median 3.0 vs. 5.5; P = 0.0229).

Conclusions: Short pulse focal/grid laser photocoagulation could reduce the number of IVR injections required to resolve macular edema and increase BCVA in a possible mechanism of reduced influx of edema fluid into the foveal area in eyes without apparent perifoveal microaneurysms.