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Objective: To assess diabetes eye service use in New Zealand among people aged ≥15 years by estimating service attendance, biennial screening rate, and disparities in the use of screening and treatment services. Methods: We obtained Ministry of Health data from the National Non-Admitted Patient Collection on diabetes eye service events between 1 July 2006 and 31 December 2019 and sociodemographic and mortality data from the Virtual Diabetes Register and linked these using a unique patient identifier (encrypted National Health Index). We 1) summarized attendance at retinal screening and ophthalmology services, 2) calculated biennial and triennial screening rate, 3) summarized treatment with laser and anti-VEGF and used log-binomial regression to examine associations of all of these with age group, ethnicity, and area-level deprivation. Results: In total, 245,844 people aged ≥15 years had at least one diabetes eye service appointment attended or scheduled; half of these (n = 125,821, 51.2%) attended only retinal screening, one-sixth attended only ophthalmology (n = 35,883, 14.6%) and one-third attended both (n = 78,300, 31.8%). The biennial retinal screening rate was 62.1%, with large regional variation (73.9% in Southern District to 29.2% in West Coast). Compared with NZ Europeans, Māori were approximately twice as likely to never receive diabetes eye care or to access ophthalmology when referred from retinal screening, 9% relatively less likely to receive biennial screening and received the fewest anti-VEGF injections when treatment was commenced. Disparities in service access were also present for Pacific Peoples compared to NZ Europeans, younger and older age groups compared to those aged 50–59 years and those living in areas with higher deprivation. Conclusions: Access to diabetes eye care is suboptimal, with substantial disparity between age groups, ethnicity groups, area level deprivation quintile and across districts. Efforts to improve access to and quality of diabetes eye care services must include strengthening data collection and monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning (DL) models have shown promise in detecting chronic kidney disease (CKD) from fundus photographs. However, previous studies have utilized a serum creatinine-only estimated glomerular rate (eGFR) equation to measure kidney function despite the development of more up-to-date methods. In this study, we developed two sets of DL models using fundus images from the UK Biobank to ascertain the effects of using a creatinine and cystatin-C eGFR equation over the baseline creatinine-only eGFR equation on fundus image-based DL CKD predictors. Our results show that a creatinine and cystatin-C eGFR significantly improved classification performance over the baseline creatinine-only eGFR when the models were evaluated conventionally. However, these differences were no longer significant when the models were assessed on clinical labels based on ICD10. Furthermore, we also observed variations in model performance and systemic condition incidence between our study and the ones conducted previously. We hypothesize that limitations in existing eGFR equations and the paucity of retinal features uniquely indicative of CKD may contribute to these inconsistencies. These findings emphasize the need for developing more transparent models to facilitate a better understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the ability of DL models to detect CKD from fundus images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to correlate small dot hyper‐reflective foci (HRF) observed in spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD‐OCT) scans of an animal model of hyperglycaemia with focal electroretinography (fERG) response and immunolabelling of retinal markers. The eyes of an animal model of hyperglycaemia showing signs of diabetic retinopathy (DR) were imaged using SD‐OCT. Areas showing dot HRF were further evaluated using fERG. Retinal areas enclosing the HRF were dissected and serially sectioned, stained and labelled for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and a microglial marker (Iba‐1). Small dot HRF were frequently seen in OCT scans in all retinal quadrants in the inner nuclear layer or outer nuclear layer in the DR rat model. Retinal function in the HRF and adjacent areas was reduced compared with normal control rats. Microglial activation was detected by Iba‐1 labelling and retinal stress identified by GFAP expression in Müller cells observed in discrete areas around small dot HRF. Small dot HRF seen in OCT images of the retina are associated with a local microglial response. This study provides the first evidence of dot HRF correlating with microglial activation, which may allow clinicians to better evaluate the microglia‐mediated inflammatory component of progressive diseases showing HRF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To create an ensemble of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), capable of detecting and stratifying the risk of progressive age-related macular degeneration (AMD) from retinal photographs. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: Three individual CNNs are trained to accurately detect 1) advanced AMD, 2) drusen size and 3) the presence or otherwise of pigmentary abnormalities, from macular centered retinal images were developed. The CNNs were then arranged in a "cascading" architecture to calculate the Age-related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) Simplified 5-level risk Severity score (Risk Score 0 – Risk Score 4), for test images. The process was repeated creating a simplified binary "low risk" (Scores 0– 2) and "high risk" (Risk Score 3– 4) classification. Participants: There were a total of 188,006 images, of which 118,254 images were deemed gradable, representing 4591 patients, from the AREDS1 dataset. The gradable images were split into 50%/25%/25% ratios for training, validation and test purposes. Main Outcome Measures: The ability of the ensemble of CNNs using retinal images to predict an individual's risk of experiencing progression of their AMD based on the AREDS 5-step Simplified Severity Scale. Results: When assessed against the 5-step Simplified Severity Scale, the results generated by the ensemble of CNN's achieved an accuracy of 80.43% (quadratic kappa 0.870). When assessed against a simplified binary (Low Risk/High Risk) classification, an accuracy of 98.08%, sensitivity of ≥ 85% and specificity of ≥ 99% was achieved. Conclusion: We have created an ensemble of neural networks, trained on the AREDS 1 dataset, that is able to accurately calculate an individual's score on the AREDS 5-step Simplified Severity Scale for AMD. If the results presented were replicated, then this ensemble of CNNs could be used as a screening tool that has the potential to significantly improve health outcomes by identifying asymptomatic individuals who would benefit from AREDS2 macular supplements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bevacizumab is the only agent that many people can afford, yet there are only limited data on whether it improves macular oedema (MO) secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO) in real‐world clinical practice. Here we studied 12‐month real‐world treatment outcomes of bevacizumab for RVO‐related MO. Methods: This was a multicentre, observational study analysing 12‐month data from the Fight Retinal Blindness! (FRB) database. We studied treatment‐naïve eyes with MO secondary to RVO commencing bevacizumab therapy between June 2009 and June 2019. Visual acuity (VA) and central subfield thickness (CST) were measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. The primary outcome was a change in VA from baseline to 12 months. Results: Two hundred and twenty treatment naive eyes were analyzed. The baseline VA for BRVO was better than CRVO (55.8 vs. 42.6 LogMAR letters) and this gap widened over the 12‐month period, with a 12‐month VA change of +14.0 (95% CI 11.1, 16.8) letters for BRVO and + 11.9 (95% CI 6.4, 17.4) for CRVO. The mean CST at baseline was 511 μm for BRVO and 627 μm for CRVO, falling at 12 months by −155 μm (−190, −121) in BRVO and −198 μm (−252, −145) in CRVO. The median number of injections for BRVO and CRVO completers was 7 (5, 9). Conclusions: Bevacizumab can be an effective treatment of RVO‐MO in a real‐world setting with outcomes approaching those reported by the seminal clinical trials. The functional and anatomical outcomes of intravitreal therapy were better for BRVO than CRVO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of the study was to report the estimated incidence, cumulative rate, risk factors and outcomes of submacular haemorrhage (SMH) with loss of vision in neovascular age‐related macular degeneration (nAMD) receiving intravitreal injections (IVT) of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor in routine clinical practice. Methods: Retrospective analysis of treatment‐naïve eyes receiving IVTs of VEGF inhibitors (ranibizumab, aflibercept or bevacizumab) for nAMD from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2020 that were tracked the Fight Retinal Blindness! registry. Estimated incidence, cumulative rate and hazard ratios (HR) of SMH with loss of vision during treatment were measured using the Poisson regression, Kaplan–Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazard models. Results: We identified 7642 eyes (6425 patients) with a total of 135 095 IVT over a 10‐year period. One hundred five eyes developed SMH with loss of vision with a rate of 1 per 1283 injections (0.08% 95% confidence interval [95% CI] [0.06; 0.09]). The estimated incidence [95% CI] was 4.6 [3.8; 5.7] SMH with loss of vision per year per 1000 treated patients during the study. The cumulative [95% CI] rate of SMH per patient did not increase significantly with each successive injection (p = 0.947). SMH cases had a mean VA drop of around 6 lines at diagnosis, which then improved moderately to a 4‐line loss at 1 year. Conclusions: Submacular haemorrhage (SMH) with loss of vision is an uncommon complication that can occur at any time in eyes treated for nAMD in routine clinical practice, with only limited recovery of vision 1 year later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We assessed the proportion of eyes with neovascular age‐related macular degeneration (nAMD) in routine clinical practice that reach ≥14 week treatment intervals and their outcomes. Method: We analysed data from the Fight Retinal Blindness! (FRB!) Project database, a prospectively designed registry of 'real‐world' outcomes. Treatment‐naive eyes starting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors for nAMD from 1st January 2006 were included. Eyes were defined to have reached the ≥14 week treatment interval if they received ≥2 consecutive injections at treatment intervals of ≥14 week but not exceeding 26 weeks. Outcomes were reported in a subgroup of eyes that had 12 months of follow‐up from reaching this interval. Results: Of the 3907 treatment‐naïve eyes that started treatment during the identified periods on a treat‐and‐extend regimen and received at least 8 injections over the first 2 years, 402 (10%) eyes received at least 2 consecutive injections at an interval of ≥14 week during their follow‐up. Fifty‐two percent of these eyes maintained vision to 12 months, however only 40% stayed at this interval and 25% of the lesions reactivated. Conclusion: We found that only 10% of eyes with nAMD were extended beyond a 13‐week injection interval and that over half had returned to a shorter interval by 12 months. Eyes that stayed at this extended treatment interval maintained stable vision. More data on the outcomes of eyes treated with intervals longer than 3 months are required to establish whether emerging VEGF inhibitors provide a more sustained effect than the currently available drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]