Purpose: To report the clinical outcomes of intravitreal aflibercept therapy in eyes with refractory and recurrent neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) switched from intravitreal bevacizumab or ranibizumab. Methods: This is a retrospective review of eyes with neovascular AMD switched to intravitreal aflibercept with at least 1 year of follow-up after the switch. All patients had had a minimum of 3 injections of bevacizumab or ranibizumab before the switch. Aflibercept was used in patients considered refractory to bevacizumab (group 1) and in recurrent patients on therapy with ranibizumab due to an institutional policy decision (group 2). Changes in best-corrected visual acuity, fluid on optical coherence tomography (OCT), central retinal thickness (CRT) and the frequency of injections were compared. Results: Eighty-five eyes of 69 patients were analyzed, 39 eyes in group 1 and 46 in group 2. The mean follow-up time was 31.6 months prior to the switch and 14.7 months on treatment with aflibercept. One year after the switch, there was a nonsignificant mean decrease of 2 letters in visual acuity in both groups (group 1: from 58.2 to 55.8 letters, p = 0.086; group 2: from 56.4 to 54.5 letters, p = 0.168), but the mean number of injections per month was significantly lower (from 0.76 to 0.57, p < 0.001). With the switch, 90.6% of the patients showed anatomic improvement with a reduction of fluid on OCT, and both groups presented significant improvement in CRT (group 1: 65.3 µm, p = 0.051; group 2: 91.0 µm, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Aflibercept appears to be a valuable tool for the management of patients with poor responses to other anti-vascular endothelial growth factor drugs. These patients could have anatomic improvement, and the injection intervals could be extended.

Purpose To analyze and compare choroidal thickness between keratoconus (KC) patients and age-matched non-KC subjects. Methods A cross-sectional, case-control study. One hundred and thirty-four keratoconic eyes and 78 control eyes, from individuals aged from 12 to 30 years old, were studied. Patients with KC followed in Corneal Department of Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, Portugal, were identified and consecutively included between December 2017 and February 2018. A spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) using depth enhanced imaging was performed, and choroidal thickness in the center of the fovea and at 500 μm intervals along a horizontal section was measured and compared. Results The statistical analysis showed that keratoconic eyes present a thicker choroid in every measured location (p < 0.05). Mean subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) values obtained were 375.86 ± 89.29 and 322.91 ± 85.14 in keratoconus and control groups, respectively (p < 0.001). In a multivariate analysis, SFCT was significantly associated with spherical equivalent (p=0.004) and the presence of keratoconus (p < 0.001), but not with age (p=0.167), gender (p=0.579), or best-corrected visual acuity (p=0.178). In a “fixed model,” keratoconus patients were found to have a 67.55 μm (95% CI 36.61–98.49) thicker subfoveal choroid compared to controls. Conclusion Keratoconus patients seem to have a thicker choroid than healthy individuals. The exact pathophysiological mechanism resulting in a thicker choroid in KC patients is not known, but it could possibly be associated with inflammatory choroidal mechanisms.

The choroid may be subclinically involved in autoimmune diseases. However, the choroidal response seems to differ depending on the autoimmune disease. Infiltrative mechanisms specific for lupus may justify the thickened choroid found in these patients.