Chemokines in aqueous humour before and after intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide in eyes with macular oedema associated with branch retinal vein occlusion

Purpose: To determine the aqueous humour levels of chemokines before and after an intravitreal injection of triamcinolone acetonide (IVTA) in eyes with macular oedema associated with a branch retinal vein occlusion (ME‐BRVO). Design: Single‐centre, prospective, consecutive interventional case series. Participants: Seventeen eyes of 17 consecutive patients with ME‐BRVO who underwent IVTA were studied. Seven eyes without retinal vascular disease served as control. Intervention: All patients with ME‐BRVO underwent IVTA. Main outcome measures: The optical coherence tomographically determined foveal thickness (FT) and the aqueous humour levels of inflammatory chemokines of the C‐C subfamily, including eotaxin, monocyte chemotactic protein‐1 (MCP‐1), macrophage inflammatory protein‐1α (MIP‐1α), β (MIP‐1β), and RANTES was determined before the IVTA (baseline) and at 1 week after the IVTA. Results: At the baseline, only MCP‐1 and MIP‐1β were detected in the aqueous, and MIP‐1β was significantly higher in eyes with a ME‐BRVO than in controls (p = 0.004). The level of both of these chemokines was not correlated with the FT (p = 0.654 and p = 0.608, respectively). One week after IVTA, the FT was significantly decreased (p < 0.001), and the levels of MCP‐1 and MIP‐1β were also significantly reduced (p < 0.001 and p = 0.044, respectively). The decrease in the FT was correlated with the decrease in only MIP‐1β (r = 0.58, p = 0.020). Conclusions: Alterations of the aqueous level of MIP‐1β reflect the improvement of the macular oedema after IVTA in eyes with ME‐BRVO. This indicates that the steroid‐dependent ME‐BRVO was closely related with the level of MIP‐1β.