title: SYSTEMIC BETA-BLOCKERS IN NEOVASCULAR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate whether oral beta-blockers (BBs) are associated with a decreased number of intravitreal injections in patients with incident neovascular age-related macular degeneration.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective cohort study of subjects with a new diagnosis of neovascular age-related macular degeneration was conducted using a medical claims database from a large national US insurer. Two cohorts were created for comparison consisting of patients with regular use of BBs or calcium channel blockers. The main outcome measured was the difference in the mean number of intravitreal injections administered between the two cohorts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After inclusion and exclusion criteria, 239 BB and 155 calcium channel blocker subjects remained for analysis. Univariate analysis revealed that the mean number of injections in the BB cohort was 6.43 (95% confidence interval [CI] 5.90-6.95) versus 6.55 (95% CI 5.85-7.25) in the calcium channel blocker cohort (P = 0.78). After multivariate adjustment, the mean number of injections in the BB group was 6.32 (95% CI 5.77-6.87) versus 6.71 (95% CI 6.02-7.40) in the calcium channel blocker group. The overall difference between the 2 groups was -0.39 (95% CI difference -1.29 to 0.51; P = 0.40).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of oral BBs is not associated with a decreased number of intravitreal injections in incident neovascular age-related macular degeneration patients.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; †Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and ‡Leonard Davis Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Anastasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Traband
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Shaffer
authors.forename: Brian L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: VanderBeek
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D058449:Intravitreal Injections / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016014:Linear Models; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers