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TUESDAY, Sept. 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Levodopa is a safe and well-tolerated treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and improves visual outcomes, according to a study recently published in The American Journal of Medicine<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Anna G. Figueroa, from the University of Arizona in Tucson, and colleagues examined the effect of levodopa in nAMD. In cohort 1, the effects of carbidopa-levodopa were assessed on vision and anatomic outcomes for four weeks among patients with newly diagnosed nAMD and naive to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections. In cohort 2, patients previously treated with anti-VEGF injection therapy were treated with ascending levodopa doses.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that levodopa was safe and well tolerated and improved visual outcomes while delaying anti-VEGF injection therapy. Retinal fluid decreased by 29 percent without anti-VEGF treatment in the first month. The decrease in retinal fluid was sustained through six months, with a mean anti-VEGF injection frequency of 0.38 injections\/month. Mean visual acuity improved by 4.7 and 4.8 letters in cohorts 1 and 2, respectively. In cohort 2, there was a 52 percent reduction in the need for anti-VEGF injections.<\/p>\n
“Using levodopa as an adjuvant therapy for nAMD could well alter the course of disease progression and save billions of dollars without sacrificing vision,” the authors write.<\/p>\n