The Impact of Two Strategies in the Monitoring of Exudative ARMD on the Visual Acuity (by OCT B Scan or OCT Angiography)

Plain-language summary

The treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is a major issue of public health. The therapeutic arsenal has widely grown throughout the years with the emergence of intra-vitreous anti-angiogenic treatments, under different surveillance protocols. The "PRN" surveillance (pro re nata: an on-demand treatment with monthly follow-up) allows a faster re-injection in case of neovascular relapse in order to maintain the best visual acuity. This therapeutic protocol is guided by the sub-retinal neovascular signs of activity. The monitoring is done during common practice via OCT B scans showing indirect signs of neovascular activity (exudation signs). OCT retinal imaging has been recently enriched with new programs allowing the visualization of sub-retinal neovessels without the use dyes (OCT angiography). The OCT angiography is automatically done by a program using standard OCT sections. During the monitoring of a patient using the OCT A, the signs of renewed neovascular activity are represented by an "arterialization" or the development of an arteriole network of the neovessel with the reappearance of a hyper reflective flow after a neovascular regressive phase. Indeed, the visualization of neovessels during the monitoring by Angio-OCT may lead to therapeutical modifications (anticipation of the injections). Knowing that the injection time-table of ARMD patients treated with anti-angiogenics is determined by sub-retinal neovascular signs of activity. This activity is evaluated during routine clinical practice by very specific signs, observable on OCT B scans. The hypothesis of this study is that the search of activity sins on the Angio-OCT, a new technic of image analysis performed on the OCT, may modify this injection time-table, with an impact of the patient's visual acuity.

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