• Bernadetta Płatkowska-Adamska, Agnieszka Bociek, Magdalena Kal, Dorota Zarębska-Michaluk, and Dominik Odrobina.
• Medical and Health Sciences, Collegium Medicum, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland - bernadetta.platkowska@gmail.com.
• Minerva Med. 2024 Oct 11.

BackgroundDue to safety concerns, patients were hesitant to receive a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine. In this study, we investigated whether neovascular age-related macular degeneration activity deteriorated after receiving the booster dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine.MethodsOptical coherence tomography (OCT) of the macula, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and slit-lamp examination data were collected from 89 patients. All these individuals were diagnosed with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and treated with intravitreal injections of aflibercept or ranibizumab. During the process of treatment, patients received a booster dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine. Time points included two visits before (marked as "-2", "-1") and two visits after (marked as "1", "2") the uptake of the booster dose.ResultsThere were significant differences in the average thickness and total volume of the macula during follow-up. Moreover, a decreased average thickness, total volume, total thickness of the macula, subretinal fluid thickness, and subretinal complex thickness was observed between the time points "-2" and "2", but only in the aflibercept group. There were no significant differences in the frequency of occurring intraretinal cysts, subretinal fluid, serous retinal pigment epithelial detachments retinal hemorrhage, subretinal hyperreflective material, complete RPE and outer retinal atrophy, and BCVA before and after the booster dose.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that the BNT162b2 vaccine booster dose did not deteriorate the course of neovascular AMD.

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