Abstract
Purpose:
112 patients with OAG (21 with DM, 91 without DM) were assessed for retinal capillary blood flow as measured by Heidelberg retinal flowmetry (HRF) at baseline. 80 patients (16 with DM, 64 without DM) were assessed at 4-year follow-up. IOP was measured at both visits using Goldmann applanation tonometry. Mixed-model ANCOVA was used to test for significance of changes from baseline to 4-year follow-up with p<0.05 considered statistically significant.
Methods:
In patients with DM, the number of superior zero blood flow pixels significantly increased from 0.189 (CI 95%; 0.166, 0.2140) at baseline to 0.259 (0.218, 0.309) at 4 years with a change of 0.051 (0.024, 0.074; p=0.0008). In patients without DM, the change in the number of superior zero blood flow pixels was not statistically significant (p=0.13), leading to a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.0164). In patients with DM, the number of inferior zero blood flow pixels significantly increased from 0.182 (0.159, 0.209) at baseline to 0.223 (0.189, 0.264) at 4 years with a change of 0.034 (0.002, 0.060; p=0.0401). Similarly, in patients without DM, mean inferior zero pixel flow significantly increased from 0.182 (0.169, 0.196) at baseline to 0.202 (0.184, 0.222) at 4 years with a change of 0.018 (0.002, 0.033; p=0.0306). There was no significant change in IOP (p>0.05).
Results:
In this cohort of patients with OAG, the amount of area with no retinal capillary blood flow increased in patients with DM over a 4-year period, but not in patients without DM. This data suggests that OAG patients with DM may have more retinal capillary dropout associated with their disease compared to OAG patients without DM.
Conclusions:
In this cohort of patients with OAG, the amount of area with no retinal capillary blood flow increased in patients with DM over a 4-year period, but not in patients without DM. This data suggests that OAG patients with DM may have more retinal capillary dropout associated with their disease compared to OAG patients without DM.
Keywords: 436 blood supply •
572 ischemia •
498 diabetes