Reading Speed after Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Therapy in Patients with Wet Age-related Macular Degeneration

Abstract

Purpose: To demonstrate the changes in reading speed after anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment in wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) patients. Methods: This retrospective study enrolled wAMD patients who were treated with intravitreal anti-VEGF injection from May 2019 to September 2019. The reading speed was measured before anti-VEGF treatment and at the next injection visit using an iPad application for the assessment of reading speed. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) were also analyzed. In addition, we investigated whether the improvement in optical coherence tomography (OCT)-related biomarkers affected the change in reading speed after anti-VEGF injection. As a subgroup analysis, patients were further divided into a loading dose group and a maintenance group. Results: Seventy-four patients were enrolled in this study. In the loading dose group (n = 38), there were significant improvements in BCVA (p = 0.01) and CRT (p = 0.001); additionally, the reading speed improved significantly in two of the four areas (words per minute (WPM) reading [p = 0.035] and WPM speaking [p = 0.013]) after anti-VEGF injection. In the maintenance group (n = 36), BCVA, CRT, and reading speed showed some improvement; however, the results were not statistically significant. In the maintenance group, reading speed improved significantly as the size of the pigment epithelial detachment decreased after anti-VEGF injection. Conclusions: Reading speed may be useful as an index for measuring visual function related to the quality of life of wAMD patients. Precise evaluation and continuous monitoring of OCT biomarkers are necessary for the treatment of wAMD especially in the maintenance group because they can be predictors of reading speed improvement.