Study protocol on prevalence of non-exudative macular neovascularisation and its contribution to prediction of exudation in fellow eyes with unilateral exudative AMD (EYE-NEON)

PurposeFellow eyes of patients with unilateral neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) are at risk of developing macular neovascularisation (MNV). These eyes may first develop subclinical non-exudative MNV (neMNV) before they leak to form exudative MNV (eMNV). The EYE NEON study is a 2-year study aimed at estimating the prevalence and incidence of neMNV and evaluating its role as a predictor for conversion to neovascular AMD.MethodsEYE NEON is a multicentre study that will run in retinal clinics across 25 National Health Service with the aim to recruit 800 patients with new onset nAMD in the first eye. The fellow-eye with no evidence of nAMD at baseline will be the study eye. All study eyes will have OCT and OCTA done at first and second year following first anti-VEGF treatment to the first eye (non-study eye), with new onset nAMD. We will estimate the prevalence and incidence of neMNV over 2 years, rate of conversion from neMNV to eMNV and numbers initiated on treatment for neovascular AMD in the study eye will be reported. Predictive models of conversion including neMNV with other demographic and imaging parameters will be developed.ConclusionThe study design with proposed target sample size is sufficient to evaluate the retinal imaging characteristics of the study eyes with and without neMNV and develop predictive models to inform risk of conversion to nAMD.

Automated summary

The purpose of the study is to estimate the prevalence and incidence of subclinical non-exudative macular neovascularisation (neMNV) in patients with unilateral neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), and to develop predictive models for conversion to neovascular AMD. The study will recruit 800 patients with new onset nAMD in the first eye, and evaluate the retinal imaging characteristics using OCT and OCTA. The findings will help inform the risk of conversion to neovascular AMD.