Marie Tsaloumas chairs Alimera Sciences evening symposium, the symposium was run alongside the RCOphth 2015 congress
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A symposium entitled “The Importance of Early Recognition of Chronic Diabetic Macular Edema: Optimising Visual Outcomes for the Patient” chaired by Miss Marie Tsaloumas from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. The symposium was aligned with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists 2015 Annual Congress in Liverpool.1
This symposium provided evidence to support the inflammatory nature of diabetic macular edema (DME), and featured case studies drawn from the collective experience of the symposium speakers on the treatment of DME patients that were insufficiently responsive to currently available therapies.
In addition to Miss Tsaloumas, the symposium speakers included: Mr Simon Taylor from Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, Mr Fahd Quhill from Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, and Mr Maged Habib from Sunderland Eye Hospital in Sunderland.
Mr Simon Taylor’s presentation focussed on the role of inflammation in the pathophysiology of DME. One of the key messages from his presentation was the need to consider the inflammatory element of chronic DME, as this is a fundamental part of subsequent therapy. It was also emphasized that it is important to understand that in DME, inflammation drives retinal disease as opposed to simply considering inflammation a consequence of retinal disease. Lastly, Mr Simon Taylor concluded that addressing the inflammation that drives retinal disease sooner may help to prevent some of the structural and functional damage associated with chronic DME.1
Mr Fahd Quhill’s presentation was entitled “ILUVIEN® (fluocinolone acetonide [FAc]) intravitreal implant 1 year on: the Sheffield experience” and showed that ILUVIEN delivered anatomical and functional improvements in DME patients refractory or insufficiently responsive to standard therapies. He also showed the results from a cohort of 28 patients, demonstrating that six months after intravitreal injection of the implant, 53.5% of the patients had a central retinal thickness below 350 µm and 46.43% achieved a gain in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of ≥15-letters over baseline. Furthermore, 71.43% of the cohort experienced an improvement of ≥10-letters in BCVA over baseline. Mr Fahd Quhill explained that DME is a progressive disease that requires regular monitoring and, in some cases, it may be necessary to combine therapies, such as macular laser, intravitreal injections of triamcinolone acetonide or vascular endothelial growth inhibitors, for an effective disease management.1
Mr Maged Habib gave a presentation on how to optimize the treatment of DME post-vitrectomy. The results from six patients with chronic DME post-vitrectomy were presented and discussed individually. Following the administration of ILUVIEN, Mr Habib showed that not all responses to the FAc implant occurred over the same timeframe. Some patients showed a typical response, with anatomical and functional benefit noticeable within six weeks after injection of the implant. On the other hand, other patients showed a delayed, but nonetheless effective, response. Mr Habib suggested that the variation in the response to ILUVIEN might be explained by the complex pathologies of this particular population of patients with chronic DME.1
Finally, Miss Marie Tsaloumas closed the symposium by discussing her experience in treating patients with FAc implants. Her experience was similar to the other speakers in terms of the functional and structural responses obtained, and no issues with intraocular pressure had been reported at the time of the symposium. However, it is worth noticing that this represents an early use of ILUVIEN at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, therefore, further follow-up is needed and patients will continue to be monitored. Furthermore, Miss Tsaloumas added that FAc implants had been effective in vitrectomized eyes treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Please follow this link to access the symposium report https://iluvien.co.uk
Coming soon…
- A summary of Alimera Sciences’ symposium entitled “From clinical trials to clinical practice: The benefit of sustained therapy in management of DME”, presented at EURETINA 2015. Real-world experience on the usage of ILUVIEN was presented, and included the interim results from a six-month single arm study in Portugal, data from a French single-arm study and real-world data from the UK.
- A report of some of the key sessions covering macular edema from The American Society of Retina Specialists’ 2015 Annual Scientific Meeting.
- An article on Professor Sobha Sivaprasad’s presentation entitled “Role of steroid in diabetic macular oedema”, presented at The Royal Society of Ophthalmologists 2015 Annual Congress.
Look out for DME content developed by Alimera Sciences on this website throughout 2015. We hope it supports your knowledge of DME and ILUVIEN, and if you would like to contribute material for publication, please send your materials to dmecontenthub@hayward.co.uk, we’d be very pleased to consider your contributions.
REFERENCES 1. “The Importance of Early Recognition of Chronic Diabetic Macular Edema: Optimising Visual Outcomes for the Patient”. Alimera Sciences symposium aligned with The Royal College of Ophthalmologists 2015 Annual Congress. Available at: iluvien.co.uk
UK-ILV-MMM-0281 Date of preparation: July 2015
Founded in 2003, Alimera Sciences researches and develops innovative vision-improving treatments for chronic retinal diseases, such as diabetic macular edema (DME), dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and retinal vein occlusion. In 2015, Alimera Sciences partnered with The Ophthalmologist to facilitate the publication of independently created educational content surrounding DME, a serious retinal complication associated with diabetes, which is increasing in incidence with the increasing prevalence of diabetes worldwide. Published content will include articles ranging from basic science and disease processes to overviews of clinical data, different surgical procedures, comparisons of treatment options, and practical advice for managing diabetic patients. With a commitment to honesty, integrity, responsibility, candor, and trust, Alimera Sciences intend to provide educationally focused content to healthcare professionals across a wide range of topics in DME in order to both increase disease awareness and understanding, and to help improve patient outcomes. UK-ILV-MMM-0355 Date of preparation: August 2015 enquiries@alimerasciences.com
