Decreased optical coherence tomography-measured pericentral retinal thickness in patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 with minimal diabetic retinopathy.
OBJECTIVE
A comparison of retinal thickness (RT) measurements with optical coherence tomography (OCT) in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) and no or minimal diabetic retinopathy (DR) versus healthy controls.


METHODS
Fifty-three patients with type 1 DM with no or minimal DR underwent full ophthalmic examination, fundus photography and OCT. Mean RT measured by OCT was calculated for the central fovea, the fovea, the pericentral and the peripheral area of the macula, and compared to healthy controls.


RESULTS
Mean RT in the pericentral area was lower in patients with minimal DR (267 microm +/- 20 microm; n = 23) compared to healthy controls (281 microm +/-13 microm; p = 0.005; n = 28). Mean pericentral RT in patients without DR (276 microm +/-14 microm; n = 30) was less than pericentral RT in healthy controls, but higher than in patients with minimal DR, without being statistically significant. None of the other regions showed a significant change.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study a significantly decreased pericentral RT was measured in patients with minimal DR compared to healthy controls. This could be explained by a loss of intraretinal neural tissue in the earliest stage of DR.
Biallosterski
Carine
C
Department of Ophthalmology, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
van Velthoven
Mirjam E J
ME
Michels
Robert P J
RP
Schlingemann
Reinier O
RO
DeVries
J Hans
JH
Verbraak
Frank D
FD
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000473:pathology*; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005584:Fovea Centralis / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000473:pathology; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence