Research Article
Differentiation between Good and Low-Responders to
Intravitreal Ranibizumab for Macular Edema Secondary to
Retinal Vein Occlusion
Marcel N. Menke,
1,2
Andreas Ebneter,
2
Martin S. Zinkernagel,
2
and Sebastian Wolf
2
1
Department of Ophthalmology, Cantonal Hospital Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland
2
Department of Ophthalmology, Inselspital, University Hospital of Bern and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Correspondence should be addressed to Marcel N. Menke; marcel.menke@gmail.com
Received 29 August 2016; Revised 20 October 2016; Accepted 1 November 2016
Academic Editor: Miguel Cordero-Coma
Copyright © 2016 Marcel N. Menke et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Background. Ranibizumab is approved for treatment of macular edema in eyes with retinal vein occlusion (RVO). Some eyes show
low-response to treatment with regard to visual acuity gain (VA) and OCT central retinal thickness (CRT) reduction. Te goal of this
study was to quantify the percentage of low-responders. Methods. Treatment of na¨ ıve eyes with macular edema secondary to RVO
was included and monthly VA and CRT were analyzed. Four weeks afer the loading phase, and at the end of the study, eyes were
grouped into low- and good responders based on predefned criteria. Te responder and low-responder groups were then compared
at various time points. Results. Forty-three eyes were included. Regarding VA, 27.9% were low-responders afer the loading phase
and 30.2% at the end of the study. For CRT, 34.9% were low-responders afer the loading phase versus 27.9% at the end of the study.
75% of patients that were VA low-responders and 73.3% of CRT low-responders afer loading phase remained low-responders at
the end of the study. Conclusion. Approximately 30% of patients showed low response to ranibizumab afer the loading phase and
afer 1 year of treatment. Two-thirds of patients that were low-responders afer the loading phase remained low-responders afer 1
year.
1. Background
Central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) is characterized by
blockage of the major outfow vessel of the retina, resulting
in retinal hemorrhages, exudates, and macular edema [1]. In
branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO), one of the primary,
secondary, or tertiary branches of the central retinal vein
are blocked [2]. BRVO leads to similar retinal problems and
visual loss due to macular edema if the posterior pole is
afected.
Intravitreal injection of ranibizumab (Lucentis; Genen-
tech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA), a Fab fragment that
binds all isoforms of VEGF-A, has been shown to markedly
reduce macular edema. Two large, multicenter, double-
masked trials—the Ranibizumab for the Treatment of Mac-
ular Edema following Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion Study
(BRAVO) [3] and the Ranibizumab for the Treatment of
Macular Edema afer Central Retinal Vein Occlusion Study
(CRUISE) [4] analyzed the efcacy and safety of intravit-
real ranibizumab in either types of retinal vein occlusion.
Te study results showed that intraocular injections of
ranibizumab were benefcial for these patients.
Te HORIZON trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifer:
NCT00379795) was designed to obtain additional informa-
tion about the long-term efcacy of ranibizumab treatment
in two patient cohorts. Cohort 1 included patients with neo-
vascular age-related macular degeneration and will not be
discussed further. Cohort 2 included patients with macular
edema afer retinal vein occlusion that had completed the
BRAVO or CRUISE studies [5]. Recently, Bhisitkul et al.
reanalyzed data from BRAVO and CRUISE to see if optical
coherence tomography (OCT) data at baseline or month 3
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Journal of Ophthalmology
Volume 2016, Article ID 9875741, 6 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/9875741