The following is a summary of “Correlation Between Blue Fundus Autofluorescence and SD-OCT Measurements of Geographic Atrophy in Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration,” published in the May 2024 issue of Ophthalmology by Ehlers et al.
Researchers conducted a prospective study comparing Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to study geographic atrophy (GA) area and analyze SD-OCT lesion changes in GATHER1.
They analyzed avacincaptad pegol (ACP) for treating geographic atrophy (GA). Correlations between FAF and OCT measurements were explored post hoc. GA area was measured from blue-light FAF images using semiautomatic segmentation software with OCT and near-infrared imaging. OCT scans were analyzed with machine-learning enhanced segmentation, corrected by human review. GA area was defined as total RPE loss on cross-sectional B scans. Time points included months 0, 6, 12, and 18. GA changes with ACP versus sham were studied.
The results showed that FAF and OCT GA measurements correlated strongly over 18 months (r=0.93). Differences in GA measurements were minor: 0.11 mm2 (1.42) at Month 0, 0.03 mm2 (1.62) at Month 6, -0.17 mm2 (1.81) at Month 12, and -0.07 mm2 (1.78) at Month 18. OCT showed 30% and 27% GA growth reductions with ACP versus sham at months 12 and 18, respectively, similar to GATHER1 FAF findings.
Investigators concluded that OCT’s strong correlation with blue FAF measurements confirms its reliability for GA area assessment in clinical trials.
Source: ajo.com/article/S0002-9394(24)00202-2/fulltext
