Human Subjects

Patients with a diagnosis of wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) at the time of outpatient appointments from April to June 2019 were included in this study. Because the crystalline lens may also contribute to AH metabolic signatures, the AMD group was subdivided into AMD phakic and pseudophakic groups. AH specimens were collected during the initial intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR; 0.5 mg) injection. AMD intravitreal injection (post-IVR sample) was performed on the second round of IVR (1 month after the initial IVR treatment). The control group was composed of age-matched patients undergoing cataract surgery without AMD.

All wAMD participants underwent a comprehensive eye examination, including the measurement of uncorrected distant visual acuity, corrected distant visual acuity, subjective refraction, noncontact tonometry, slit-lamp examination, dilated fundus examination, spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT), fluorescein angiography, and indocyanine green angiography.

Exclusion criteria included the presence of any retinopathy other than AMD, uveitis or ocular infection, glaucoma, corneal diseases, significant opacities, refractive error of 6 diopters or more of spherical equivalent, past history of any other ocular surgery or intraocular procedure (such as laser or intravitreal injections), and/or diabetes mellitus.