Hi, I'm Rolake Alabi from Austin Retina Associates in Austin, Texas. Here at ASRS, I spoke about the role of subretinal fluid in treatment outcomes, looking specifically at the phase 3 YOSEMITE and RHINE trials. This was a post-hoc analysis looking at patients with and without subretinal fluid or SRF in the phase 3 YOSEMITE and RHINE trials. YOSEMITE and RHINE focused on faricimab arms compared to aflibercept two milligrams in patients with center involving DME. In the post-hoc analysis, we looked specifically at subgroups with and without subretinal fluid and analyzed the changes from baseline in BCVA, CST, and IRF in these patients. Looking at the baseline characteristics, we found that patients with SRF at baseline presented with worse or more severe ocular disease, including worse visual acuity, increased intraretinal fluid, and higher CST. Looking longitudinally at BCVA, we found that when specifically looking at adjusted mean BCVA, these patients had larger changes from baseline compared to patients without SRF at baseline.

Interestingly though, when looking at the absolute BCVA values for these patients, they ended up achieving similar visual outcomes by week 100 compared to patients without SRF. This was also the case when looking at their adjusted mean CST values. Adjusted mean CST change from baseline was greater in patients with SRF compared to patients without SRF at baseline. And the CST outcomes by week 100 when looking at the absolute values was also very similar between the two groups. The trend held when looking at intraretinal fluid in both groups as well. Despite presenting with worse visual acuity, higher CST, and higher intraretinal fluid at baseline, our patients with subretinal fluid at baseline ultimately achieved very robust improvements in both their functional and anatomic outcomes. This data is encouraging and suggests that despite presenting with worse initial functional and anatomic findings, our patients with subretinal fluid can and do respond well to treatment.