predictive factors for functional and anatomical outcomes after anti-vegf treatment for macular edema in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion

Purpose: this study aimed to identify predictive factors for the improvement of best-corrected visual acuity (bcva) and reduction of central macular thickness (cmt) after treatment of macular edema (me) due to branch retinal vein occlusion (brvo) in a real-world setting.methods: this retrospective study included patients with me secondary to brvo who were treated with intravitreal injection of bevacizumab as the first-line therapy and were followed up for 12 months. demographic and clinical data, in addition to baseline spectral domain optical coherence tomography (sd-oct) features, were considered as possible biomarkers of final bcva and cmt. we also collected the data concerning the need for additional treatment including sectorial laser photocoagulation, change to another anti-vegf agent, or intravitreal corticosteroid injection.results: a total of 161 eyes were analyzed. bcva significantly improved from baseline to 12-month follow-up (0.6 and 0.4 logmar, respectively; p < 0.01). cmt decreased significantly during the follow-up period (from 498.0 to 325.0 μm; p < 0.01). final bcva correlated positively with baseline bcva (p < 0.01, r = 0.57). older age at diagnosis and baseline sd-oct findings including cmt, disruption of the retinal inner layers, retinal pigment epithelium (rpe) damage, and impairment of the ellipsoid zone and external limiting membrane negatively affected final bcva (p < 0.01). multiple regression analysis identified age and bcva at baseline as the only independent predictors of final bcva (p = 0.001 and p < 0.01, respectively). no association was found between clinical data, sd-oct parameters, and final cmt.conclusion: various clinical and sd-oct parameters are prognostically relevant for visual improvement in me secondary to brvo. age at diagnosis and baseline bcva were found to be independent predictors of visual outcome.