Retina 2016 Aug;36(8):1542-7
*Clinical Trials Branch, National Eye Institute/National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; †The EMMES Corporation, Rockville, Maryland; ‡The Retina Division at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; §Elman Retina Group, Baltimore, Maryland; ¶Department of Ophthalmology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; **Retina Group of Washington, Washington, D.C.; ††Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts; ‡‡Scheie Eye Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; §§Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group, Los Angeles, California.
Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of different monitoring modalities to detect incident neovascularization associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Methods: Secondary analyses compared the rates of detecting incident neovascular AMD in prescheduled office visits versus office visits triggered by monitoring device or by symptom realization in a randomized trial evaluating home telemonitoring device plus standard care (device arm) versus standard care alone.
Results: At prescheduled office visits, neovascular AMD was detected in 14/1927 visits (0.7%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.4%-1.1%) and 14/1949 visits (0.7%, 95% CI: 0.3%-1.1%) in the device and standard care alone arms, respectively. Thirty-seven participants with neovascular AMD were detected in 318 office visits (11.6%, 95% CI: 8.1%-15.2%) triggered by device or symptom realization and 17 neovascular AMD in 65 office visits (26%, 95% CI: 15.5%-36.8%) triggered by symptom realization in the device and standard care alone arms, respectively. The home device strategy had a higher neovascular-AMD detection rate than prescheduled office visits (relative risk = 16.0 [95% CI: 8.8-29.3]). Neovascular AMD detected at triggered visits were associated with less vision loss from baseline in the device arm versus standard care alone arm (-3 letters vs. -11.5 letters, respectively, P = 0.03).
Conclusion: Telemonitoring may alter the management of patients with AMD and improve vision outcomes.