title: Bilateral intravitreal bevacizumab injection for exudative age-related macular degeneration: effect of baseline visual acuity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess side differences in patients undergoing bilateral intravitreal bevacizumab injections as treatment of exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical interventional case series study included 48 patients (96 eyes) who consecutively and bilaterally received 3 intravitreal bevacizumab injections. The mean age was 76.5±7.5 years (range: 59-88 years). Follow-up was 6 months. Main outcome parameters were best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and measurements by optic coherence tomography. The eyes of the same patient were assigned to a study group 1 for the eye with the higher visual acuity at baseline, and study group 2 for the contralateral eye with the lower visual acuity at baseline.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The increase in BCVA was significantly (P=0.02) greater in group 2 (0.07±0.25 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution, LogMAR) than in group 1 (0.05±0.29 LogMAR). The height of a detached retinal pigment epithelium, the height of subretinal fluid, and the tissue thickness of the macula decreased significantly (P<0.05) in group 2 during follow-up, whereas these parameters did not markedly change in the eyes of group 1 (P=0.96, P=0.38, and P=0.07, respectively). The reduction in the height of a detached retinal pigment epithelium and in the height of subretinal fluid was significantly more pronounced in group 2 than in group 1 (P=0.03, P=0.04, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After an initial set of 3 bilateral bevacizumab injections, patients with bilateral exudative AMD have a higher likelihood for an improvement in vision in the worse-seeing eye at baseline than in the better-seeing eye.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Medical Faculty Mannheim of the Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, Germany. jost.jonas@augen.ma.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Jost B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Jonas
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rensch
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000068258:Bevacizumab; D005122:Exudates and Transudates; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D058449:Intravitreal Injections; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012163:Retinal Detachment / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D000068258:Bevacizumab