New Retina Radio By Eyetube

Time flies: Some wet AMD patients have had the Port Delivery System with Ranibizumab (Susvimo, Genentech/Roche) for more than 5 years. How well does vision hold up at 5 years? And how do those numbers compare to 5-year endpoints in injection-based studies? John Kitchens, MD, reviews the dynamics around the PORTAL study, which assessed outcomes after 5 years of PDS treatment. And Krishna Mukkamala, MD, reviews data from a first-ever study validating longitudinal performance of AI-based home OCT (Scanly Home OCT, Notal Vision) compared with human experts. Just how sensitive and specific was home OCT compared with human graders? 

What happens when two systemic diseases collide? In this episode of New Retina Radio Journal Club with VBS, moderator Lediana Goduni, MD, is joined by Alexis Warren, MD, and Joshua Uhr, MD, to discuss a new retrospective cohort study by Rahimy et al. The panel explores how obstructive sleep apnea impacts the progression of diabetic retinopathy and elevates the risk for systemic vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and death. With nearly 24,000 patients analyzed, the study sheds light on the importance of screening and managing comorbidities in patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy—and raises critical questions about what role retina specialists should play in addressing them.

The State of Geographic Atrophy Around the Globe: Part 1 of 2 DES: For what pathophysiologic reasons is targeting the complement pathway a viable therapeutic route for treating geographic atrophy? And which pipeline therapeutic approaches could be useful to patients in the future? Anat Loewenstein, MD is joined by a world-class trio of retina specialists—Daniel Ting, MD, PhD; Paulo Eduardo Stanga, MD; and Patricio G. Schlottmann, MD—for a discussion exploring the state of play in GA from a global perspective. This podcast is part 1 of 2. 

Anat Loewenstein, MD; Paulo Eduardo Stanga, MD; Patricio G. Schlottmann, MD and Daniel Ting, MD, PhD, pick up where they left off in our previous episode, further exploring the value of setting expectations for patients with GA in nations without wide access to complement inhibitors. They also comment on which therapeutic approaches can be employed now and look toward possible forthcoming treatments. This podcast is part 2 of 2. 

Are patients from lower-income households more likely to present with severe diabetic retinopathy (DR)? Ben Young, MD, moderates a discussion with Phoebe Mellen, MD, and Jordan Deaner, MD, about a new retrospective cohort study from the Duke Eye Center than examines differences in DR severity at presentation between patients from the lowest- and highest-income ZIP codes, explores how income-based barriers to care may impact disease progression, and discusses how this data might affect clinical care, screening strategies, and public health priorities.

How tightly should you stick to a GA therapy’s label? Which complement inhibitor do you pick and why? And which candidates are best suited for treatment? In part 1 of this 2-part series, moderator Judy Kim, MD, and panelists Sunir Garg, MD; Deepak Sambhara, MD, and Rishi Singh, MD, explore these questions in a brief (but enlightening) discussion. 

What do you do when a patient with GA also has wet AMD? And how do you encourage patients on anti-complement therapy to stick with treatment? In part 2 of this 2-part series, moderator Judy Kim, MD, and panelists Rishi Singh, MD; Deepak Sambhara, MD, and Sunir Garg, MD, examine answers to these questions. 

 What conclusions can be drawn from the LIGHTSITE III study examining photobiomodulation for dry AMD? Moderator Barton Blackorby, MD, sits down with panelists Hong-Uyen Hua, MD, and Louis Cai, MD, to examine a recent opinion piece published in JAMA Ophthalmology exploring what researchers can (and cannot) confidently conclude based on the study’s data. 

Duke faculty interview key lecturers from the 2025 Duke AVS Course about their podium talks. Jason Hsu, MD, discusses the best ways to manage proliferative vitreoretinopathy, Majda Hadziahmetovic, MD, shares new data on the effect of GLP-1 receptor agonists on diabetic retinopathy, Aleksandra V. Rachitskaya, MD, explains the value of multimodal Imaging in adults with a history of prematurity, and Gavin Tan, MD, PhD, FRCSed, discusses management approaches for myopic tractional maculopathy and macular holes.

Faculty from the 2025 Duke AVS Course ask key lecturers to share pearls from their presentations. Lejla Vajzovic, MD, discusses various pediatric retinal conditions that can manifest later in life, Jason Fan, MD, explains trends in anesthesia use for open-globe surgery, and Glenn J. Jaffe, MD, examines the role of AI in retina clinical trials.

During the 2025 Duke AVS Course, Duke faculty sat down with several key lecturers to discuss their presentations. Avni P. Finn, MD, MBA, discussed her experiences delivering subretinal gene therapy, David Zacks, MD, PhD, explored important factors in retinal detachment repair, Xi Chen, MD, PhD, highlighted the various surgical approaches for young patients who present without a posterior vitreous detachment, and Yannek I. Leiderman, MD, PhD, provided pearls for scleral fixation of secondary IOLs. 

Could addressing fibrosis in wet AMD and DME unlock greater durability of treatment? Marion Munk, MD, PhD, joins the show to discuss results from the phase 2a BETTER study, which assessed the use of the anti-fibrosis agent ISTH0036 in patients with wet AMD and DME. And Diana Do, MD, sits down to review data from the LIGHTSITE IIIB study, which examined whether patients who underwent photobiomodulation therapy realized any benefit after re-administration following a 13-month washout period. Did the break in treatment lead to irreversible vision loss? Or were patients able experience a benefit after taking more than a year off? We have the answers in this episode. 

Next-generation anti-VEGF agents are designed for durability. But does that actually change the rate at which they’re administered? David Miller, MD, joins us to review a pair of ARVO 2025 presentations that examined his clinic’s real-world administration patterns for bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech), faricimab (Vabysmo, Genentech/Roche), and high-dose aflibercept (Eylea HD, Regeneron). What were the differences—and did they really matter?  Also, Robert Wang, MD, helped us understand the state of play in the TKI pipeline as he shared data from the phase 2b ODYSSEY study. What are the latest data on CLX-AX (Clearside Biomedcial)? And where does it stack up against the other TKIs in the pipeline? Stick with us to find out. 

How do GLP-1 drugs influence age-related ocular diseases such as macular degeneration and glaucoma? Moderator Lediana Goduni, MD, is joined by Alexis Warren, MD, and Joshua Uhr, MD, to examine a retrospective study published in Ophthalmology using TriNetX data to compare 5-year ocular outcomes across medication cohorts. Do these data suggest a protective benefit for GLP-1s—and does it matter for clinical practice? Tune in for their take on what’s promising, what’s premature, and what’s next.

Questions abound about fellow eye rhegmatogenous retinal detachments (RRD). How often do fellow eye develop RRD after the first one is repaired? What concomitant conditions do fellow eyes with RRD have? What risk factors exist for fellow eye RRD? And which procedures are used to repair fellow eye RRD? Moderator Barton Blackorby, MD, and panelists Louis Cai, MD, and Hong-Uyen Hua, MD, dissect the latest data on these questions from the AAO IRIS Registry and then compare how these data align with their respective clinical experiences. 

What are the real-world safety data following administration of faricimab (Vabysmo, Genentech)? Maura Di Nicola, MD, and guests Sruthi Arepalli, MD, and Barton Blackorby, MD, review data from a real-world, single-center, retrospective study of approximately 4500 injections of faricimab in over 700 patients at Wills Eye Hospital. What did the data show? And do these data effect the clinical patterns of Drs. Di Nicola, Arepalli, and Blackorby? 

Sponsored by Apellis Pharmaceuticals. Scott Walter, MD, and Esther Kim, MD, join John W. Kitchens, MD, to discuss how they treat GA in their practices. Listen to gain expert insights as Drs. Kim, Walter, and Kitchens each share their experiences with this treatment. They also share best practices for dosing based on trial data.

Sponsored by Apellis Pharmaceuticals. John W. Kitchens, MD, invites Scott Walter, MD, and Esther Kim, MD, to discuss best practices for identifying appropriate patients with GA for treatment. Gain perspectives on patient selection, patient education, and safety considerations.

How can OCT angiography help retina specialists distinguish between retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and retinal artery occlusion (RAO) in patients who present without acute findings? Using real-world cases as a backdrop, Yasha Modi, MD, and Kat Talcott, MD, discuss Dr. Modi’s approach to distinguishing RVO and RAO via OCT angiography and review which specific OCT angiography findings may indicate referral to cardiology. Later in the episode, they explore the utility and limitations of OCT angiography in patients with diabetic retinopathy.  This episode is supported by Zeiss Professional Education.

What role can OCT angiography play in tracking the development of central serous retinopathy (CSR)? Yasha Modi, MD, and Kat Talcott, MD, review the use of OCT angiography in a real-world CSR case, discuss the value of selecting OCT angiography over fluorescein angiography for patients with neovascularization, and parse which populations are not a good fit for OCT angiography.  This episode is supported by Zeiss Professional Education.