OUTER RETINAL LAYER THICKNESS AS GOOD VISUAL PREDICTOR IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETIC MACULAR EDEMA.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relationship between outer retinal layer (ORL) thickness in diabetic macular edema to visual acuity (VA).


METHODS
Ninety-five eyes were included in this prospective nonrandomized case-control study. They divided into 30 cases of healthy normal subjects and 65 cases of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy with diabetic macular edema. Complete ophthalmic examination and spectral domain-optical coherence tomography were done for all cases and analyzed to measure central foveal point thickness (CFT), ORL thickness at fovea, and subfoveal choroidal thickness.


RESULTS
The ORL thickness was significantly thinner in diabetic macular edema group (85.3 μm) than controls (99.9 μm) (P = 0.002). There was higher significant correlation between ORL thickness and logMAR VA (r = -0.87, P < 0.001) than correlation between CFT and VA (r = 0.18, P = 0.16). The cutoff point of the relationship between ORL thickness and VA was 88 μm with moderate sensitivity (81%) and high specificity (88%), below which vision is affected. Outer retinal layer thickness is significantly related to subfoveal choroidal thickness but not CFT.


CONCLUSIONS
This study revealed reduction in ORL thickness in diabetic macular edema. There is a higher and stronger correlation between ORL thickness and vision than that between CFT and vision.
Department of Ophthalmology, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Tamer F
TF
Eliwa
Department of Ophthalmology, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq.
Mahdi A
MA
Hussein
Department of Ophthalmology, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Mohamed A
MA
Zaki
Department of Ophthalmology, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Osama A
OA
Raslan
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008269:Macular Edema / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology*; D055214:Retinal Photoreceptor Cell Outer Segment / Q000473:pathology; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*