Conference MDAngle offers personal perspectives from conference attendees, showcasing their anticipation, quick takeaways, and insights into how the presented research will affect their patients.
The 2024 American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting was held in Chicago on October 18-21. Attendees participated in a diverse range of presentations on wet AMD, including discussions on advances in retinal imaging technology and the latest research on the management of macular atrophy on retina subspecialty day. Additionally, there were interactive workshops on new diagnostic tools and panel discussions on emerging treatments.
Arshad M. Khanani, MD, MA
Clinical Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine; Director of Clinical Research, Sierra Eye Associates, Reno, Nevada
“So, very exciting times for us as a field and lots of new things coming up in the future and of course the AAO subspecialty day was very helpful in terms of learning new things and of course implementing them in clinical practice.”
Preconference Considerations
AAO 2024: Previewing the Retina Subspecialty Day and Advances in Wet AMD
Dr Khanani shares the presentations he is looking forward to at AAO 2024, particularly from the neovascular AMD session, highlighting talks by Dr Barbara Blodi on macular atrophy and Dr Usha Chakravarthy on fibrosis biomarkers. Other key highlights include Dr Marco Zarbin's discussion on the impact of disease activity criteria on dosing intervals and Dr Gemmy Cheung's talk on polypoidal neovascular AMD.
Quick Clinical Takeaways
AAO 2024: Key Insights on Wet AMD
Just back from attending the neovascular AMD session during AAO 2024, Dr Khanani notes how key findings included Dr Barbara Blodi's observation of higher macular atrophy rates in anti-VEGF–treated patients in the MARINA study. Dr Usha Chakravarthy called for consensus on fibrosis biomarkers, while Dr Gemmy Cheung highlighted the benefits of combining anti-VEGF with photodynamic therapy for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Dr Marco Zarbin demonstrated how different re-treatment criteria in clinical trials can significantly affect patient outcomes.
How Will My Patients Benefit?
AAO 2024: New Horizons in the Treatment of Wet AMD
Dr Khanani shares key updates from the AAO 2024 retina subspecialty day, highlighting new research on extending treatment intervals for patients with stable neovascular AMD and detecting fibrosis via optimal coherence tomography imaging. He also discusses combination therapies for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) and his own groundbreaking presentation on ABBV-RGX-314 gene therapy, which reduces treatment needs and shows potential for bilateral AMD dosing.
Polling Question
Summary
Key presentations from AAO 2024’s retina subspecialty day included advancements in neovascular AMD treatments and new approaches to managing macular atrophy and fibrosis. Dr Barbara Blodi’s research highlighted macular atrophy risks with anti-VEGF treatment, suggesting observation for stable patients without active disease. Dr Usha Chakravarthy emphasized the need for fibrosis biomarkers in clinical trials to predict long-term vision outcomes, and Dr Gemmy Cheung discussed using combination therapies for certain PCV cases. Dr Marco Zarbin shared insights on trial design, showing how treatment criteria can influence AMD drug durability outcomes.
Resources
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Cite this: Conference MDAngle: 2024 AAO Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration - Medscape - Oct 23, 2024.
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