Ophthalmology

Each month, our editorial staff compiles a recap of the top news in ophthalmology. Our November 2023 month-in-review features a trio of FDA news, important updates to the GA pipeline, and insight into disparities in eye care.

Dr Paul Hahn and Dr Michael Cohen explore upcoming treatments featuring innovative mechanisms of action and novel delivery systems for addressing neovascular AMD.

By 2040, the number of blindness and vision loss cases are estimated to increase by roughly 50% across Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South America, a new study found.

Of 1023 color fundus photograph images, the 5 optometrists in the study were able to accuracy diagnosis 226 images with AMD.

Retina specialists evaluate the effectiveness of the two new therapies for neovascular AMD and DME by analyzing their respective clinical trial methodologies and outcomes.

Standard-Field Fundus Camera performs well in detecting proliferative sickle cell retinopathy, but performs poorly detecting non-proliferative sickle cell retinopathy, a new study found.

After years 1, 3, and 5, patients with diabetic retinopathy patients had increased odds of depression and suicide, patients with glaucoma had increased odds for all mental health conditions with higher odds for suicide or suicide ideation, and patients with AMD had increased odds for depression.

Only the states California, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Pennsylvania require physicians to report medically impaired drivers, and 66% of states reported there was instructions on reporting available on DMV websites.

Household primary language was associated with vision screening, with children from non-English households exhibiting lower rates of pediatric vision screening.

Retina specialists evaluate the effectiveness of the two new therapies for neovascular AMD and DME by analyzing their respective clinical trial methodologies and outcomes.

Sent on November 13, 2023, the FDA letter warns Amazon on the introduction of unapproved new eye drop products into interstate commerce on their website.

Presented at AAO 2023, Kendra Klein-Mascia, MD, discussed her team’s study, comparing faricimab with aflibercept. The study found 2 injections of faricimab gets rid of 75% of retina fluid by week 8, but for aflibercept, erasing the same amount of fluid takes 3 injections until week 12.

At the end of year 2, 80% of patients on faricimab reached > q12 week dosing, and 63% achieved q16 dosing.

Expert retina specialists discuss the latest therapies that could reduce the treatment burden and provide superior clinical outcomes in retinal diseases.

Presented at AAO 2023, a study analyzed which race was associated more with having a glaucoma-associated diagnosis, as well as races’ knowledge, attitude, and beliefs about eye care.

Eligibility criteria prevents more Black individuals than White individuals from participating in clinical trials for diabetic macular edema.

Durga S. Borkar, MD, MMCi, presented her study at AAO 2023 which found trial eligibility discriminates against race/ethnicity.

In the PULSAR study, White and Asian participants had similar best corrected visual acuity improvements in the 2 mg aflibercept group.

Presented at AAO 2023, Russell Van Gelder, MD, PhD, discussed Abacus study and how KIO-301 targets low vision and end stage retinitis pigmentosa with visual acuity of light perception.

Two studies presented at AAO demonstrate that low dose atropine is associated with slowing myopia progression, but another study finds that this is not true. Thus, there are mixed results on this relationship.

Patients who are female, in minority groups (particularly, Black or Asian), a visual acuity outside of the <20/40 to 20/200 range, and who are >70 years old receive less treatment.

On the floor at AAO 2023, host Veeral Sheth, MD, discusses UBX1325 for patients with diabetic macular edema, based on the 48-week results from the phase 2 BEHOLD study.

Aflibercept 8 mg treatment did well with maintaining patients, according to a presentation focusing on the PULSAR study.

In a presentation at AAO 2023, Tsang discussed topline data from the phase 2 trial on MCO-010 optogenetic therapy for vision loss in Stargardt Disease.

ARCHER study demonstrated that the antibody ANX007 was time and dose dependent, robust, and not dependent on lesion growth.