Acuity improves with TTT, study says

Mountain View, CA-Patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who were treated with a transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) laser protocol showed a significant clinical benefit of improved vision versus those in a sham-treated control group, according to Iridex Corp.

In a subgroup of patients with baseline acuity of 20/100 or worse, 22% of treated eyes had improved vision by one or more lines compared with none of the eyes in the untreated control group, according to the company.

At 18 months, there was a 2-line benefit compared with sham-treated eyes. TTT-treated eyes lost an average of 2 lines of acuity, while sham-treated eyes lost 4 lines.

"This compares with no vision improvement for patients in the sham-treated control group," Dr. Reichel said. "These results support a role for TTT in the treatment of a significant fraction of patients with occult wet AMD worldwide."