Association between early and late response in eyes with central or hemiretinal vein occlusion treated with anti-VEGF agents : SCORE2 report 12: secondary analysis of the SCORE2 clinical trial.

PURPOSE To assess whether early visual acuity letter score change from baseline (ΔVALS) and early spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) measures of center point thickness (CPT) are associated with later ΔVALS in eyes with macular edema due to central or hemiretinal vein occlusion treated with intravitreal aflibercept or bevacizumab. METHODS Secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial of 362 participants. RESULTS Considered separately at month 3, CPT (categorized as ≤ 300 μm, > 300 μm) and ΔVALS (categorized as  10 versus < 5; P < 0.001 for both aflibercept and bevacizumab). When month 3 measures are considered jointly, ΔVALS effect remains significant for average ΔVALS from months 4 to 12 (aflibercept: P = 0.002; bevacizumab: P < 0.0001) but not CPT (aflibercept: P = 0.18; bevacizumab: P = 0.22). CONCLUSION While both month 3 ΔVALS and CPT are predictive of ΔVALS after month 3 through month 12, early ΔVALS has a stronger relationship than CPT with later ΔVALS. SCORE2 registration number is NCT01969708.