Purpose : There are currently few treatment options available for the progression of RPE atrophy in non-exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It is believed that individual oxidative stress, like in smoking, is a major clinical disease factor. In-vitro data demonstrate the protective anti-oxidative effect of photobiomodulation (PBM) when different wavelengths (in the visible and near-infrared range) of low-intensity light are delivered to the compromised RPE. This study investigates how AMD patients benefit from the use of photobiomodulation therapy (PBM) in terms of visual function.
Methods : The study included 41 patients (72 eyes) treated with the PBM (or Valeda© Light Delivery System). Each eye was treated 9 times for 6 minutes with three different wavelengths (590, 660 and 850 nm) within three weeks. The following variables were measured before treatment and four weeks after the last treatment: BCVA, contrast sensitivity (CS), critical print size (CPS), reading speed (RS) and macular letter recognition (Macular Mapping Test, MMT) at 10% and 100% letter contrast.
Results : The mean age of patients was 76.71 (± 9.01) years, with the majority being females (58.3%). After PBM treatment BCVA improved from -0.40 log (±0.31) to -0.35 log (±0.34), p = 0.002; CS from 7.27% (±4.85) to 6.61% (±4.54), p = 0.034; CPS from 1.55 (±1.07) to 1.37 (±1.15) M-units, p = 0.018; RS from 111 (±38) to 120 (±40) w/min, p = 0.042; MMT 100% from 24.64 (±8.16) to 25.22 (±8.73), p = 0.127; MMT 10% from 14.30 (±11.26) to 17.29 (±10.75) general field score, p = 0.003.
Conclusions : PBM leads to stabilisation and improvement of visual functions. On average, all variables improved with treatment, but not all patients benefit to the same extent. PBM seems to slow the progression of visual impairment in patients with dry AMD and have a positive impact on activities of daily living (reading).
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.
