• Sabite Emine Gökce, Ayşenur Çelik, and Ceyda Başkan.
• Department of Ophthalmology, Dr. Abdurrahman Yurtaslan Oncology Research and Training Hospital, 06550, Yenimahalle, Ankara, Turkey. segokce@gmail.com.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2024 Feb 1; 193 (1): 517521517-521.

PurposeVascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has a critical role in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF drugs is the mainstay of neovascular AMD treatment. Blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is shown to be a biomarker of inflammation in AMD. We aimed to investigate the role of NLR in predicting favorable short-term anti-VEGF treatment results in neovascular AMD patients.MethodsA total of 112 patients diagnosed with exudative AMD and had taken 3 monthly intravitreal bevacizumab injections were analyzed retrospectively. Medical records were reached to obtain neutrophil and lymphocyte values to calculate NLR. Best-corrected visual acuity and central macular thickness (CMT) measurements were recorded at each visit. T test or Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare continuous variables, and chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables. Receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) analysis was performed to determine cut-off, sensitivity, and specificity values. P value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsThe mean age was 68.1 ± 7.2 years, and the mean NLR was 2.11 ± 0.81. The ROC analysis revealed a cut off value of 2.0 for NLR to predict at least 100 μm CMT change (sensitivity 87.1%; specificity 87.8%) and a cut off value of 2.4 for NLR to predict at least 0.1 logMAR visual improvement (sensitivity 77.2%; specificity 64.8%) after 3 monthly IVT bevacizumab injections.ConclusionNLR can provide additional prognostic information for the identification of patients with a good initial response to anti-VEGF therapy.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

18 keywords...

hide…