Impact of Prophylactic Ranibizumab to Prevent Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration on Eyes With Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of prophylactic ranibizumab (PR) injections given every 3 months in eyes with intermediate nonexudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) on drusen volume, macular layer thicknesses, and progression of geographic atrophy (GA) area over 24 months in the PREVENT trial. METHODS: This post hoc analysis of the prospective PREVENT trial compared eyes with intermediate AMD randomized to PR versus sham injections to determine rates of conversion to neovascular AMD over 24 months. Drusen area and volume, macular thickness and volume, and retinal layer thicknesses were measured on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography images and analyzed. Masked grading of GA area and subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDDs) using fundus autofluorescence images was performed. RESULTS: There were no statistical differences in drusen area and volumes between groups, and similar reductions in central subfield thickness, mean cube thickness, cube volume, and retinal sublayer thickness from baseline to 24 months (P = 0.018 to < 0.001), with no statistical differences between groups in any of these anatomic parameters. These findings were not impacted by the presence or absence of SDD. Among the 9 eyes with GA in this study, mean GA growth rate from baseline to 24 months was 1.34 +/− 0.79 mm(2)/year after PR and 1.95 +/− 1.73 mm(2)/year in sham-treated eyes (P = 0.49), and similarly showed no statistical difference with square root transformation (P = 0.61). CONCLUSIONS: Prophylactic ranibizumab given every 3 months did not appear to affect drusen volume, macular thinning, or GA progression in eyes with intermediate AMD. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: This work investigates the impact of PR on progressive retinal degeneration in a clinical trial.