Klinische Monatsblatter fur Augenheilkunde最新文献

Various inflammatory diseases can occur in the eyelids. Infectious disorders - such as staphylococcal or demodex blepharitis, dermatological diseases such as seborrheic dermatitis, ocular rosacea or ocular cicatricial pemphigoid and rheumatological diseases such as dermatomyositis or sarcoidosis - are just some of these aetiologies. Clinically, these causes of blepharitis can manifest in inflammation of the eyelid margin with collarettes around the eyelash follicles, madarosis, meibomian gland dysfunction, erythema, and nodular tumour. Even if the clinical differential diagnosis between the various blepharitides is difficult, a correct diagnosis can significantly improve the prognosis. As most blepharitides are chronic in nature, regular and careful care of the eyelid margin is necessary to improve the patient's symptoms. Depending on the cause, local or systemic antibiotics or immunosuppressive agents can also help. If no improvement after treatment occurs, the previous diagnosis must be critically questioned so that masquerade syndromes such as sebaceous carcinoma are not overlooked.

Background: Due to the variable course of thyroid eye disease (TED), treatment should be tailored to disease severity, individual risk factors, and clinical course. This study is based on a retrospective analysis at the orbital centre of the University Eye Clinic Essen and evaluates the efficacy of the IL-6 receptor blocker tocilizumab as a second-line therapy in patients with therapy-refractory TED.

Patients/methods: After approval of cost coverage, 20 patients were treated with tocilizumab over a mean period of 4.8 ± 2.7 months. The following parameters were assessed: sex, age, underlying thyroid disease, disease activity and severity, prior therapies, visual acuity, intraocular pressure, eyelid position, exophthalmos, monocular excursions, strabismus/diplopia, levels of TSH receptor antibodies (TRAb), and adverse events.

Results: The female-to-male ratio was 3 : 1. Mean patient age was 58.2 ± 8.5 years. The majority (90%, n = 18) had Graves' disease; one patient had primary hypothyroidism and one was euthyroid. All patients had previously failed various treatment regimens (median cumulative steroid dose 4.6 g [1.5 - 7.5 g], 55% mycophenolate, 65% orbital apex radiation, 20% balanced orbital decompression). Among 17 patients with detectable TRAb at baseline, mean antibody levels decreased by 48.4%. A reduction of at least 30% was achieved in 70.6% of these patients (n = 17). A decrease in the Clinical Activity Score (CAS) by ≥ 2 points was observed in 70% of cases. The mean inflammation score (maximum 20 points per patient) decreased from 8.8 ± 3.9 to 3.4 ± 2.4. The effect on exophthalmos was moderate: mean reduction was 0.9 ± 1.8 mm (range - 6 mm to + 3 mm). A decrease of ≥ 2 mm was documented in 25% of patients, whereas an increase was noted in 12.5% (0.5 to 3 mm). Improvement in ocular motility was documented in 22.5% of patients, while 10% showed deterioration.

Discussion: This cohort exclusively included therapy-refractory patients, some with protracted disease. The significant reduction in inflammation and particularly in TRAb levels, as a biomarker of disease activity, demonstrate the efficacy of tocilizumab in this highly selected population. Tocilizumab may therefore be an important treatment option for patients with high antibody levels and predominantly inflammatory disease manifestations. Further studies are warranted to evaluate whether it reduces the risk of relapse after successful treatment with an IGF-1 receptor blocker.

Purpose: To investigate the early outcome of intravitreal aflibercept 8 mg in treating neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) of eyes that either received prior intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment or were treatment-naïve - under real-world conditions.

Methods: This is a retrospective study of a total of 83 eyes with nAMD treated with aflibercept 8 mg. 61 of these eyes completed an initial loading phase of 3 monthly intravitreal injections (IVI) and were included in further analyses. Outcome parameters included best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA, logMAR), presence of intraretinal (IRF) and subretinal fluid (SRF), extent of pigment epithelium detachment (PED height, µm) and central subfield retinal thickness (CSRT, µm) in spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Patients were assessed at the beginning of aflibercept 8 mg treatment and 4 weeks after completing the loading phase. The McNemar test was used to test for changes in distribution of eyes showing IRF and SRF, and the paired t test was performed to test for changes in BCVA, PED height and CSRT.

Results: 51 eyes had been previously treated with intravitreal anti-VEGF, while 10 eyes were treatment-naïve. Mean BCVA after completed loading phase was 0.49 ± 0.31 logMAR and did not show changes to baseline BCVA, which was 0.49 ± 0.32 logMAR (p = 0.89). A significant reduction was observed in all disease activity parameters in SD-OCT. The proportion of eyes showing IRF and SRF decreased from 54.1% to 26.2% (p < 0.001) and 65.6% to 24.6% (p < 0.001), respectively. A reduction in PED height from 227.7 ± 114.6 µm at baseline to 191.9 ± 111.4 µm (p < 0.001) and a decrease in CSRT from 375.2 ± 126.2 µm to 308.8 ± 93.7 (p < 0.001) were recorded. Of all eyes (n = 83) that had received at least one IVI aflibercept 8 mg, 5 eyes (6.0%) developed symptomatic, non-infectious intraocular inflammation (IOI), which resolved completely with topical treatment.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrate good effectiveness of intravitreal aflibercept 8 mg in the real-world setting, with significant reduction in disease activity parameters in SD-OCT after the loading phase with 3 monthly injections - while BCVA remained stable. While the PULSAR trial only included treatment-naïve eyes, our study underlines the value of aflibercept 8 mg, even for pre-treated eyes that responded insufficiently to previous anti-VEGF treatment. Further studies are needed to evaluate long-term outcome in real-world setting, in order to verify the extended IVI intervals shown in the PULSAR trial.