Relationship Between Subretinal Hyperreflective Material Reflectivity and Volume in Patients With Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration Following Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Treatment

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between subretinal hyperreflective material (SRHM) reflectivity and volume in patients treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy for choroidal neovascularization secondary to exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data from 17 eyes of 16 patients with neovascular AMD undergoing anti-VEGF therapy were collected retrospectively. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) data were obtained using the Cirrus HD-OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA) 512 x 128 macular cube protocol. Detailed manual segmentation was performed for each case using customized grading software. RESULTS: The mean macular volume declined from 10.4 mm 3 at baseline to 9.6 mm 3 at 12 months. SRHM volume declined from 0.33 mm 3 to 0.12 mm 3, whereas reflectivity increased from 0.48 to 0.64 units (P = .012). SRHM reflectivity correlated positively with logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) acuity (r = .49, P = .04) but correlated with SRHM volume (r = -0.50, P = .04) only at baseline. CONCLUSION: SRHM reflectivity, which correlated partially with SRHM volume, appears to carry independent information regarding disease activity. SRHM reflectivity may be useful for monitoring disease activity and response to therapy.