Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate the influence of age and long diabetes duration on the Multifocal Electroretinography (mfERG) response in diabetic eyes (n=44) with no or minimal diabetic retinopathy, and the influence of age in healthy (n=15) eyes.
Methods: :
In 44 eyes (44subjects) with no or minimal diabetic retinopathy (DR); (age 47±15 years and duration 29±13 years) the correlation of age and diabetes duration to mfERG amplitudes and implicit time were analyzed. The results from 15 healthy eyes (age 49±7 years) served as a control. The two most central mfERG rings were analyzed and calculations were made within and between the groups.
Results: :
Diabetic eyes demonstrated a negative correlation in mfERG amplitudes with both age and duration (r=-0.7, P=0.001 and r=-0.49; P=0.001, resp.) with time, whereas the healthy eyes did not show any correlation with older age (r=0.11; P=0.69). In addition diabetic eyes showed a positive correlation in both age and duration to prolonged implicit time (c=0.56; p=0.001 and c=0.4; p=0.013, resp) which was also demonstrated in healthy eyes with increasing age (0.66;p=0.007). Linear regression analysis demonstrated both age (p=0.001) and duration (p=0.001) to independently influence amplitudes and implicit time in diabetic eyes.
Conclusions: :
Both longer duration and older age are correlated with reduced amplitudes and delayed implicit time on the mfERG in diabetes patients, whereas only implicit time was correlated to older age in the healthy group.
Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • electrophysiology: clinical • diabetes