Objective To analyze the characteristics of myopic choroidal neovascularization (mCNV) and the outcome of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment by using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Methods A prospective study was carried out, which included 34 eyes of 31 patients with mCNV in West China Hospital of Sichuan University between May and December 2017. OCTA scans were conducted to all patients before treatment, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 3–6 months after treatment. The analysis was performed to evaluate the morphological characteristics, lesion area, parafoveal superficial vessel density and perfusion area of choroidal neovascularization before and after treatment. Results Among mCNV patients, small round crumby lesions, small branches, and capillaries responded well to anti-VEGF treatment. Compared with the mean lesion area in mCNV patients before treatment [(0.082±0.013) mm2], there was instant reduction 1 day after treatment [(0.064±0.013) mm2] and obviously decreased after 1 week [(0.046±0.011) mm2]. The parafoveal superficial vessel density and perfusion area before treatment were (15.2±0.5)% and (32.6±1.5)%, respectively, and obvious decrease was observed both in parafoveal superficial vessel density [(12.1±0.9)%] and perfusion area [(27.4±2.0)%] 1 day after treatment in mCNV patients, which began to recover 1 month after treatment. Conclusions OCTA is a non-invasive diagnostic examination, which can clearly identify tiny structures of mCNV, quantify the lesion area and display specific vasculature in mCNV patients. Furthermore, retinal microcirculation can be detected by using OCTA, which provides an effective approach of monitoring the progression and treatment effect of mCNV.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the quality of methodology and evidence of the systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRs/MAs) of acupuncture therapy for bronchial asthma. MethodsCNKI, CBM, VIP, WanFang Data, PubMed, The Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases were electronically searched to collect SRs/MAs of acupuncture therapy for bronchial asthma from inception to October 31, 2021. Four reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and applied the AMSTAR 2 to evaluate the quality of methodology of the included studies and the GRADE system to assess the certainty of evidence for outcomes. ResultsA total of 14 SRs/MAs were included and their main conclusions were that acupuncture therapy was beneficial in improving the clinical efficacy of bronchial asthma treatment. The evaluation of AMSTAR 2 showed that the methodological quality of all studies was all extremely low. The evidence grading of GRADE system showed that, in the total of 59 outcomes, 7 were graded as medium-level, 24 as low-level, 28 as extremely low-level, and none was graded as high-level. ConclusionThe current evidence shows the advantages of acupuncture therapy for bronchial asthma but the reliability of SRs/MAs is low. High-quality clinical studies are still needed to verify the efficacy of acupuncture therapy for bronchial asthma.