One-Year Functional and Morphological Prognosis After Intravitreal Injection Treatments According to Different Morphological Patterns of Diabetic Macular Edema in Real-Life: MARMASIA Study Group Report No.13.

Purpose: To evaluate the responses of different optical coherence tomography (OCT) patterns of diabetic macular edema (DME) to intravitreal injection therapy.

Methods: In this retrospective, comparative, and multicenter study, patients who had previously untreated DME, who received intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) or aflibercept (IVA) and/or steroid treatment with the pro re nata (PRN) treatment regimen after a 3-month loading dose, and had a 12-month follow-up in the MARMASIA Study Group were included. Morphological patterns of DME were divided into four groups based on OCT features diffuse/spongious edema (Group 1), cystoid edema (Group 2), diffuse/spongious edema+subretinal fluid (SRF) (Group 3), and cystoid edema+SRF (Group 4). Changes in central macular thickness (CMT) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at months 3, 6, and 12, and the number of injections at month 12 were compared between the DME groups.

Results: 455 eyes of 299 patients were included in the study. The mean baseline BCVAs [Logarithm of the Minimum Angle of Resolution (logMAR)] in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 0.54 ± 0.24, 0.52 ± 0.25, 0.55 ± 0.23, and 0.57 ± 0.27, respectively. There was no significant difference between the baseline mean BCVAs between the groups ( = .35). The mean BCVAs were significantly improved to 0,47 ± 0,33 in group 1, 0,42 ± 0,33 in group 2, 0,47 ± 0,31 in group 3, and 0,45 ± 0,43 at month 12. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of BCVA change at month 12 ( = .71). The mean baseline CMTs in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 387,19 ± 128,19, 447,02 ± 132,39, 449,12 ± 109,24, and 544,19 ± 178,61, respectively. At baseline, the mean CMT was significantly higher in Group 4 than in the other groups ( = .000). The mean CMTs were significantly decreased to 325,16 ± 97,55, 334,94 ± 115,99, 324,33 ± 79,20, and 332,08 ± 150,40 in four groups at month 12 respectively ( > .05). The groups had no significant difference in mean CMT at month 12 ( = .835). The change in CMT was significantly higher in Group 4 than in the other groups at month 12 ( = .000). The mean number of intravitreal anti-VEGF injections at month 12 was 4.51 ± 1.57 in Group 1, 4.63 ± 1.54 in Group 2, 4.88 ± 1.38 in Group 3, and 5.07 ± 1.49 in Group 4. The mean number of anti-VEGF injections in Group 1 and Group 2 was significantly lower than in Group 4 ( = 0,014 and  = 0,017).

Conclusions: In real life, there was no significant difference between the DME groups in terms of visual improvement at month 12. However, better anatomical improvement was achieved in Group 4 than in the other DME groups.