title: External beam radiation in patients suffering from exudative age-related macular degeneration. A matched-pairs study and 1-year clinical follow-up.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this prospective study was to ascertain whether external beam irradiation is effective in patients with subretinal neovascularization (SRN) due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
  
  
  METHODS
  All patients had subfoveal SRN due to AMD as verified by fluoresceinangiography. Two hundred and eighty-seven patient-eyes were treated by external beam irradiation (total dose of 16 Gy in 2-Gy fractions, 5 times a week) from January 1996. The analysis was restricted to those 73 patients with a minimum follow-up of 11 months. Eighteen patients with subfoveal SRN who refused treatment served as control group (CG). 18 patients of the treatment group (TG) were matched for visual acuity, refraction and extent of SRN. The statistical analysis was performed with the unpaired t-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the CG was 73.9 years (range 66.9-81.3 years) and of the TG 75.6 years (range: 65.7-80.6 years). The median follow-up was 13.5 months (range 11.9-18.4 months) in the CG and 12.9 months (range 11-13.9 months) in the TG. The initial visual acuity (VA) was 20/80 in both groups. After 7 months the follow-up revealed median VA of 20/400 in the CG and 20/160 in the TG (P=0.0335). The final median VA was 20/400 in both groups, with a range from 20/40 to 20/1000 in the CG and from 20/63 to 20/500 in the TG (P=0.2433). The SRN doubled in size during this time in both groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that external beam irradiation applied in 2-Gy fractions 5 times a week slows down the visual loss in exudative AMD for a short time. Nevertheless, the patients' reading vision could not be saved in the long term.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vitreoretinal Surgery, University of Cologne, Germany. Ralf.Krott@uni-koeln.de
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Krott
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Staar
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: K U
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Bartz-Schmidt
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Esser
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heimann
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005122:Exudates and Transudates; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005654:Fundus Oculi; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology / Q000528:radiation effects; D015861:Retinal Neovascularization / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity