An open-source dataset of anti-VEGF therapy in diabetic macular oedema patients over four years & their visual outcomes

Abstract

PURPOSE: To evaluate visual acuity (VA) outcomes of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in diabetic macular oedema (DMO). METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, electronic medical records for all patients undergoing intravitreal injections (IVI) in a tertiary referral centre between March 2013 and October 2018 were analysed. Treatment response in terms of visual acuity outcomes were reported for all eyes over a 4-year observation period. RESULTS: Our cohort includes 2616 DMO eyes of 1965 patients over 48 months. Cox proportional hazards modelling identified injection number (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.18), male gender (HR = 1.13), and baseline VA (HR = 1.09) as independent predictors to reach a favorable visual outcome of more than 70 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letters. Half of our cohort reached 70 letters 1.9 months after starting anti-VEGF therapy. Of those that reached 70 letters, 50% fell below 70 by 14.7 months. CONCLUSION: To date, this is the largest single center cohort study and over the longest observation period reporting on real-life outcomes of anti-VEGF in DMO. We have made an anonymised version of our dataset available on an open-source data repository as a resource for all clinical researchers globally.