Peripheral retinal non-perfusion and treatment response in branch retinal vein occlusion

AIM： To evaluate the association between the size of peripheral retinal non-perfusion and the number of intravitreal ranibizumab injections in patients with treatment-naive branch retinal vein occlusion （BRVO） and macular edema. METHODS： A total of 53 patients with treatment-naive BRVO and macular edema were included. Each patient underwent a full ophthalmologic examination including optical coherence tomography （OCT） imaging and ultra wide-field fluorescein angiography （UWFA）. Monthly intravitreal ranibizumab injections were applied according to the recommendations of the German Ophthalmological Society. Two independent, masked graders quantified the areas of peripheral retinal non-perfusion. RESULTS： Intravitreal injections improved bestcorrected visual acuity （BCVA） significantly from 22.23± 16.33 Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study （ETDRS） letters to 36.23 ±15.19 letters （P〈0.001）, and mean central subfield thickness significantly reduced from 387±115 pm to 321±115 μm （P=0.01）. Mean number of intravitreal ranibizumab injections was 3.61±1.56. The size of retinal non-perfusion correlated significantly with the number of intravitreal ranibizumab injections （R= 0.724, P〈0.001）. CONCLUSION： Peripheral retinal non-perfusion in patients with BRVO associates significantly with intravitreal ranibizumab injections in patients with BRVO and macular edema.