Abstract
Purpose: :
To compare the visual acuity and macular thickness of patients with diabetic retinopathy with and without clinically significant macular edema (CSME) prior to treatment with argon laser panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) for proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Methods: :
Patients were classified into two groups before the treatment. All the patients underwent full ophthalmological examination and optical coherence tomography (OCT), following PRP. Outcomes were visual acuity at 3 months and OCT at 1 week, 1 and 3 months following treatment. Patients with CSME received macular photocoagulation in the first session of PRP.
Results: :
Thirty seven eyes of 37 patients were included. Group 1 had 29 patients with diabetic retinopathy without CSME and Group 2 had 8 patients with CSME. The two groups were similar regarding gender, age, and the mean number of argon laser spots during treatment. The groups showed differences in the change in visual acuity (p< 0.001, Student’s test) at the final visit and Group 2 patients presented decrease of visual acuity from the treatment (p< 0.001, ANOVA). Group 2 patients showed thicker macular measurements by OCT evaluation.
Conclusions: :
Variation of the macular thickness as well as decrease in visual acuity was present in the patients with macular edema previous to the panphotocoagulation. Only minimal increase in the macular thickness was observed in the absence of macular edema.
Clinical Trial: :
Hospital das Clinicas, Univ of Sao Paulo, 310/05
Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • laser • edema