Chorioretinal Atrophic Lesions Evolution in Patients with Quiescent Myopic Choroidal Neovascularization Followed for More Than 10 Years.

Purpose: To evaluate the progression of chorioretinal atrophic areas associated with myopic choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in high myopic patients followed by a minimum period of 10 years.
Patients and Methods: Patients with myopic CNV lesions that achieved clinical and structural remissions over 10 years of follow-up were included. Medical records were reviewed for CNV characterization and treatment, best-corrected visual acuity at baseline (BCVA0), immediately after the last treatment (BCVA1) and at the latest visit (BCVA2). Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) was used to quantify the amount of atrophic area increase per year associated with the treated myopic CNV lesion. The first FAF performed after treatment suspension (FAF1) was compared with the most recent exam (FAF2).
Results: Thirty-six eyes from 36 patients were included. Mean total follow-up was 12.38 ± 2.68 years. Mean number of intravitreal injections (IVI) was 12.50 ± 12.40 and 25% of the eyes had previous treatment with photodynamic therapy (PDT). Mean improvement between BCVA0 and BCVA1 was 5.58 ± 15.98 letters (p < 0.001). However, a drop of 8.03 ± 12.25 letters was noticed between BCVA1 and BCVA2. FAF1 was 6.34 ± 4.92mm ² and increased to 9.88 ± 7.56mm ² (3.54 ± 3.79mm ² variation p < 0.001). The mean growth rate of the atrophic area was 0.89 ± 0.84mm ² per year. BCVA2 negatively correlated with FAF2 (k = -0.498, p = 0.002) being worse in patients with higher atrophic area growth rate (k = -0.341, p = 0.042). Eyes treated with PDT needed less IVI (5.89 ± 5.21 vs 14.70 ± 13.36, p = 0.008) but had larger FAF1 (9.80 ± 5.33 vs 5.19 ± 4.27, p = 0.013) and FAF2 (16.05 ± 7.10 vs 7.83 ± 6.63, p = 0.003). Hypothyroidism was associated with higher atrophy growth rate (1.55 ± 1.15 vs 0.73 ± 0.67, p = 0.016).
Conclusion: This research demonstrates the importance of chorioretinal atrophy progression after myopic CNV lesions regression and its impact on visual prognosis, reporting a mean yearly growth of 0.89 mm ² in atrophic areas. Previous treatment with PDT and hypothyroidism were identified as risk factors associated with larger atrophic areas and worse visual outcomes.
Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare in this work.
(© 2024 Ferreira et al.)