Clinical Characteristics and Compliance of Diabetic Macular Edema Patients to Intravitreal Anti-VEGF Injection Loading Dose at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital Oral Presentation - Observational Study - Resident
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September 30, 2023
April 8, 2024
Abstract
Introduction & Objectives
Diabetic retinopathy is the fifth most common cause of preventable blindness. In cases of diabetic
macular edema (DME), loading dose is a critical phase to achieve a stable concentration of
intravitreal vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in order to prevent progressivity. This study
aims to determine the demographic and clinical characteristics, waiting time, compliance, as well as
the relationship between education, domicile and clinical outcomes to compliance during loading
dose in DME patients.
Methods
In this retrospective descriptive study, we reviewed medical records of DME patients who received
anti-VEGF intravitreal injection between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020, while also
comparing records in 2019 (pre-Covid-19) and 2020 (during Covid-19).
Results
There were 160 patients (207 eyeballs) in 2019 and 83 patients (114 eyeballs) in 2020 who received
loading dose with similar profiles of sex, age, education, initial visual acuity and central macular
thickness (CMT). Median waiting times in 2019 and 2020 were 19 days and 23.5 days, respectively
(p=0.016). Only 25 (30.5%) and 15 (35.7%) patients were punctual in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
There was no significant relationship between education and domicile with compliance (p= 0.45, p=
0.51). Furthermore, there were visual acuity improvements of -0.18 logMAR and -0.0 logMAR in the
punctual and unpunctual group, respectively, as well as CMT decrease of -181 ?m and -156 ?m,
respectively.
Conclusion
Most patients who received loading dose were unpunctual. There was no significant relationship
between education and domicile with compliance. Furthermore, there were more significant
improvements in clinical outcomes among the punctual patients.
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Authors
Copyright (c) 2023 Theresia Kania, Anggun R Yudhanta
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