Diabetic retinopathy and peripapillary retinal thickness.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the diagnostic efficacy of macular and peripapillary retinal thickness measurements for the staging of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and the prediction of disease progression.


METHODS
In this prospective study, 149 diabetic patients (149 eyes) and 50 non-diabetic control subjects were included. Baseline optical coherence tomography was employed to measure retinal thickness in the macula (horizontal, vertical, and central) and the peripapillary zone (superior, inferior, nasal, and concentric to the optic disc). Seven baseline parameters were correlated with the DR stages identified by fluorescein angiography. Baseline retinal thickness was compared between groups of patients requiring panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) within 6 months (PRP group) and patients not requiring PRP (No-PRP group).


RESULTS
Macular and peripapillary retinal thicknesses in diabetic subjects were significantly greater than that in normal controls (p<0.05). All retinal thickness parameters, and particularly peripapillary circular scans, tended to increase with increasing DR severity (p<0.05). The baseline thicknesses of the peripapillary circular scans were greater in the PRP group than in the no-PRP group (p<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Peripapillary retinal thickness may prove to be a useful criterion for DR severity and may also serve as an indicator of disease progression.
Department of Ophthalmology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Hee Yoon
HY
Cho
Dong Hoon
DH
Lee
Song Ee
SE
Chung
Se Woong
SW
Kang
D000368:Aged; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D006801:Humans; D008028:Light Coagulation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009898:Optic Disk; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence