Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate the central retinal thickness in newly onset type 2 diabetes patients (duration 7±3 months) without any visible vascular retinopathy on fundus photographs, but with alterations detected with electrophysiology.
Methods: :
Central retinal thickness was measured using spectral domain Topcon 3DOCT. The nine areas of the ETDRS grid were analyzed, corresponding to the 30 degrees from which also the multifocal ERG were recorded.
Results: :
One of the 17 diabetes patients had a thinner retina than normal in one of the 9 areas of the ETDRS grid. In 5 patients there was a slightly thicker retina in 3- 5 of the areas measured. In the first-order kernel of the multifocal ERG, the first positive wave, P1, was delayed in the corresponding areas compared with non diabetic controls (29.7ms vs. 27.4ms p<0.001).
Conclusions: :
In this group of type 2 diabetes patients, with a duration of diabetes shorter than 1 year, electrophysiological alteration is detectable, but not a corresponding thinning of the retina. This indicates that in type 2 diabetes, central retinal functional changes may precede structural changes assessed with optical coherence tomography.
Keywords: diabetes • electroretinography: clinical • imaging/image analysis: clinical