Study on the Biomarkers to Predict the Response to Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Treatment for Choroidal Neovascularization

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV), also known as subretinal neovascularization, is a proliferative change from choroidal capillaries that has become one of the most important causes of blindness worldwide. CNV can occur in a variety of fundus diseases, including pathologic myopia, polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. At present, intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs is the first-line effective treatment for CNV. Although a number of clinical studies have shown that the treatment of CNV with anti-VEGF drugs has achieved good visual and anatomical effects, there are still some patients whose CNV has not decreased significantly or even progressed continuously after treatment. Rapid advances in imaging technology have made it possible to explore the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of choroid and CNV, especially swept source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA).

The objectives are to improve the OCTA typing of CNV and analyze the vascular morphological characteristics of each type; to identify the changes in vascular characteristics of CNV after anti-VEGF treatment in vitreous cavity; and to elucidate the predictive effects of neovascularization and choroidal vascular characteristics on visual acuity and anatomic effects of vitreous anti-VEGF drug treatment for CNV.