A recent study reported that AMD patients with prior stroke or acute myocardial infarction who undergo intravitreal anti-VEGF injections are at increased risk of mortality.

The Taiwanese study included 3,384 subjects who received an anti-VEGF injection after diagnosis of a stroke or acute myocardial infarction and 13,536 subjects who were never exposed to anti-VEGF. These two groups were matched one-to-four according to age, sex, comorbidities and date of stroke/myocardial infarction. Subgroup analyses were also performed according to the interval between stroke/myocardial infarction and injection (less than six months, six months to one year, one to two years, greater than two years).

The researchers found that the injection group had significantly higher mortality risk than the non-injection group (adjusted hazard ratio = 2.37). Subgroup analyses showed that elevated mortality was significant in patients who received their first anti-VEGF injection within one year of suffering a stroke or acute myocardial infarction.