AUTHOR=Lin Wei , Feng Meng , Liu Tingting , Wang Qingxu , Wang Wenqi , Xie Xiao , Li Wenhao , Guan Jitian , Ma Zhongyu , Liu Tong , Zhou Qingjun 

TITLE=Microvascular Changes After Conbercept Intravitreal Injection of PDR With or Without Center-Involved Diabetic Macular Edema Analyzed by OCTA

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.797087

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2022.797087

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Abstract 
Purpose: To investigate intravitreal injection of conbercept as a treatment strategy for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) with or without center-involved diabetic macular edema (CI-DME) and evaluate its effect on the microvascular changes in the eyes.
Methods: In this prospective study, 43 patients including 29 cases (56 eyes) in CI-DME with PDR patients, and 14 cases (26 eyes) in the non-centre involving diabetic macular edema (NCI-DME) with PDR patients were involved in this study. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central retinal thickness (CRT), foveolar avascular zone (FAZ), and macular capillary vessel density (VD) of the superficial retinal capillary plexus (SCP) and deep retinal capillary plexus (DCP) were assessed before and after conbercept treatments for one month, three months, or six months.  
Results: The BCVA was significantly increased after conbercept treatment in the eyes of CI-DME patients. After sixth months of treatment with the conbercept, microvascular density of the inferior area in SCP and the central fovea area in DCP increased significantly, regardless of the central fovea involvement. The effect of the conbercept treatment on VD of NCI-DME was higher than that of CI-DME. And after sixth months of treatment, CRT of CI-DME and NCI-DME patients were decreased significantly.  
Conclusions: In this study, intravitreal injection of conbercept significantly improved vision, alleviated macular edema in patients with DME. Conbercept treatment also altered the microvascular density in the retina. 
Keywords: Proliferative diabetic retinopathy; Conbercept; Foveolar avascular zone; Central retinal thickness; Best corrected visual acuity; Optical coherence tomography angiography.