To assess the effect of intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) injection on the central choroidal thickness (CCT) and its relationship with the central macular thickness (CMT) and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) changes in eyes with center-involving diabetic macular edema (DME).

Twenty eyes of 20 patients with center involving DME naïve to treatment were included in this prospective interventional case series. BCVA assessment, complete eye examination, enhanced depth optical coherence tomography (EDI OCT), and fluorescein angiography (FAG) were performed at baseline followed by 3 monthly IVB injections. The treated eyes underwent BCVA evaluation and EDI-OCT at months 1, 2, 3 and 6 after the first injection.

Patients’ median age was 63 (range, 52-75) years. Mean baseline CCT was 265±79 µm which reduced to 251±81 µm and 232±82 µm at months 3 and 6 respectively. (P<0.001) Corresponding figures for CMT were 470±107, 392±104 , and 324±122 µm, respectively.(P<0.001) BCVA improved from 0.42±0.26 logMAR at baseline to 0.36±0.22 logMAR at month 3 and 0.32±0.22 logMAR at month 6 (P=0.007). Each 10 µm decrease in CCT was associated with 27.4 µm reduction in CMT and 0.019 logMAR improvement in BCVA (P<0.001, P=0.001)

The current study demonstrated that CCT decreased after the treatment of DME with IVB and this reduction significantly correlated with CMT reduction and vision improvement. However, further studies with larger sample size are required.