The effect of pegcetacoplan treatment on photoreceptor maintenance in geographic atrophy monitored by AI-based OCT analysis

Purpose: To investigate the therapeutic effect of intravitreal pegcetacoplan on the inhibition of photoreceptor (PR) loss and thinning in geographic atrophy (GA) on conventional spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) imaging by deep learning-based automated PR quantification. Design: Post-hoc analysis of a prospective, multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled, masked phase II trial investigating the safety and efficacy of pegcetacoplan for the treatment of GA due to age-related macular degeneration. Participants: Study eyes of 246 patients, randomized 1:1:1 to monthly (AM), bimonthly (AEOM) and sham (SM) treatment. Methods: We performed fully automated, deep learning-based segmentation of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) loss and ...