Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Significant reduction of diabetic macular edema following intravitreal ranibizumab injection in the fellow eye

  • Case Report
  • Published:
International Ophthalmology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A significant therapeutic effect in the fellow eye after intravitreal ranibizumab injections was observed in a 39-year-old diabetic male. The patient was followed-up with fluorescein angiography (FA) and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). On referral, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 6/60 in the right eye and Counting Fingers in the left eye. FA revealed foveal leakage in both eyes. OCT revealed diabetic and cystoid macular edema (DME-CME) in both eyes. The patient was treated with two intravitreal ranibizumab injections in the left eye. BCVA was 6/15 and 6/30 one month after the last injection. OCT revealed significant improvement (DME elimination and significant CME improvement) in both eyes, despite the fact that only the left eye was treated. It is conceivable that, in this eye, chronic vascular damage was limited and a minimal quantity of ranibizumab had a positive effect on vascular permeability, resulting in DME resolution.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

References

  1. Romero-Aroca P (2010) Targeting the pathophysiology of diabetic macular edema. Diabetes Care 33:2484–2485

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Bakri SJ, Snyder MR, Reid JM, Pulido JS, Ezzat MK, Singh RJ (2007) Pharmacokinetics of intravitreal ranibizumab (Lucentis). Ophthalmology 114:2179–2182

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Miki K, Miki A, Matsuoka M, Muramatsu D, Hackett SF, Campochiaro PA (2009) Effects of intraocular ranibizumab and bevacizumab in transgenic mice expressing human vascular endothelial growth factor. Ophthalmology 116:1748–1754

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Matsuyama K, Ogata N, Matsuoka M, Wada M, Nishimura T, Takahashi K (2011) Effects of intravitreally injected bevacizumab on vascular endothelial growth factor in fellow eyes. J Ocul Pharmacol Ther 27:379–383

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Kim H, Robinson SB, Csaky KG (2009) FcRn receptor-mediated pharmacokinetics of therapeutic IgG in the eye. Mol Vis 15:2803–2812

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Xu L, Lu T, Tuomi L, Jumbe N, Lu J, Eppler S, Kuebler P, Damico-Beyer LA, Joshi A (2013) Pharmacokinetics of ranibizumab in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration: a population approach. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 54:1616–1624

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Gamulescu MA, Helbig H (2010) Lack of therapeutic effect of ranibizumab in fellow eyes after intravitreal administration. J Ocul Pharmacol Ther 26:213–216

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Barbazetto IA, Saroj N, Shapiro H, Wong P, Ho AC, Freund KB (2010) Incidence of new choroidal neovascularization in fellow eyes of patients treated in the MARINA and ANCHOR trials. Am J Ophthalmol 149:939–946

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Neri P, Mariotti C, Mercanti L, Salvolini S, Giovannini A (2008) Vitritis in the contralateral uninjected eye following intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin). Int Ophthalmol 28:425–427

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chrysanthos Symeonidis.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rotsos, T., Symeonidis, C., Triantafillopoulou, I. et al. Significant reduction of diabetic macular edema following intravitreal ranibizumab injection in the fellow eye. Int Ophthalmol 34, 1271–1274 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-014-9921-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-014-9921-0

Keywords

Navigation