A look at ARVO 2024

Images provided courtesy of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).

Each year, the ophthalmic industry looks forward to the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting, where researchers and companies announce data from clinical trials, new technologies, and advancements in the industry. The 2024 event was held in Seattle, Washington, from May 5 through May 9. Members of the Ophthalmology Times team attended and interviewed several researchers and industry professionals, highlighting news from the meeting.

The Modern Retina website showcased these interviews, providing retina specialists with data directly from primary researchers and key leaders in the retina space. These interviews included presenters who shared insights on research in diabetic macular edema (DME), age-related macular degeneration (AMD), advancements in optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging, potential gene therapy for retinitis pigmentosa, and even artificial intelligence (AI) tools for diagnostics. We are highlighting a selection of these conversations. For further information on these interviews and the news surrounding ARVO 2024, visit ModernRetina.com.

DME

Among presentations at the meeting, Roger Goldberg, MD, spoke about hard exudates and their resolution in patients with DME treated with
either faricimab or 2 mg aflibercept. In his interview withModern Retina, he noted that the researchers saw, overall, about a 10% greater reduction in the proportion of patients with hard exudates in the faricimab-treated eyes than the aflibercept eyes. Research on this topic continues. Goldberg shared that further data will be presented at a future event.

AMD

Irene Santiago Tierno, MS, shared insights into her work trying to understand the mechanisms in the background of early AMD. In her research as a PhD candidate at the Doheny Eye Institute, she was among the team investigating how the corneal endothelial cells from early AMD are mechanically abnormal. These abnormalities in the stiffness of both the cell and the matrix that they secrete contributes to cell death. She noted that this can be a factor in the pathogenesis of early AMD leading to wet AMD.

Images provided courtesy of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).

OCT imaging

Qinqin Zhang, PhD, presented a poster titled, “A unified deep learning model for geographic atrophy segmentation: Adaptable to SS-OCT and SD-OCT data with multiple scan patterns.” In her interview, she shared how these OCT images are key to helping advance diagnostic tools,
including those trained with deep learning or AI networks. The
research achieved high sensitivity and specificity, resulting in a high accuracy of segmenting geographic atrophy.

Gene therapy

Allen Ho, MD, presented a paper on the 12-month results of a mutation-agnostic optogenetic program for patients with severe vision loss from retinitis pigmentosa. This research focused on the potential treatment candidate MCO-010 (Nanoscope Therapeutics). Ho shared that the program saw 40% of subjects having 3-line gains in vision whereas only 1 of 9 subjects in the sham group showed an improvement of 3-line gains. One-third of subjects had 6-line gains. Further research on this candidate continues as notable best corrected visual acuity has been documented.

AI

Researchers from several countries investigated the potential use of ChatGPT 4.0 as a research tool for patients with uveitis. In this study, the vitreoretinal specialists were asked to grade the responses generated by ChatGPT 4.0 on the subject. The AI tool was asked to provide standard and simplified responses. The researchers found that the information was reliable and accurate, but it should be tailored to education level. Standard responses required a higher level of education for comprehension compared with existing websites.