Background: To study the enlargement rate of primary geographic atrophy (GA) before and after diagnosis of a secondary choroidal neovascularization (CNV) treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy.
Methods: Five hundred twenty-two consecutive eyes with primary GA were screened for the development of a complicating secondary CNV. Geographic atrophy was measured on blue autofluorescence (BAF) by two readers and calculated into mean growth rate before and after CNV diagnosis.
Results: Ten eyes of six patients were included in the study (six study eyes with GA complicated by CNV, four GA only partner eyes). Follow-up was 1.42 ± 0.48 years before and 3.64 ± 2.73 years after CNV. There was no significant difference between mean growth rate before and after CNV (1.58 ± 0.99 vs. 1.39 ± 0.65 mm2/year; p = 0.44) or between study and partner eyes (p = 0.86). Over a mean time of 3.64 ± 2.73 years, a mean of 8.3 ± 2.8 anti-VEGF injections were given. No correlation between the amount of anti-VEGF injections and change in growth rate could be observed (r = 0.58; p = 0.23).
Conclusion: In this pilot study, primary GA enlargement did not seem to be influenced by a secondary CNV. No association between the intensity of anti-VEGF treatment and changes in atrophy enlargement rates were found. Further studies with larger sample sizes are warranted.
Keywords: Age related macular degeneration; Choroidal neovascularization; Geographic atrophy; Optical coherence tomography; Vascular endothelial growth factor.