Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: The choroidal circulation provides oxygen to the foveal region of the retina. The purpose of our study was to investigate the change in choroidal blood flow (CBF) and the relation between the CBF and diabetic macular edema. Methods: Using a laser Doppler flowmeter (Oculix), we evaluated the CBF in 28 eyes of 28 healthy volunteers (control group) and 68 eyes of 68 patients with type 2 diabetes. The presence of macular edema was also examined by indirect ophthalmoscopy and fluorescein angiography. The patients with diabetes were classified into 3 groups: 27 eyes of 27 patients with no diabetic retinopathy (NDR), 22 eyes of 22 patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy and no macular edema (NPDR/ME-), and 19 eyes of 19 patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy and macular edema (NPDR/ME+). Results: The average CBF values were 13.015.22, 9.582.26, 10.734.72, and 4.882.62 (arbitrary units [AU]) in the control, NDR, NPDR/ME-, and NPDR/ME+ groups, respectively. There were significant differences in CBF between the control and NDR group (P<0.05). There were also significant differences in CBF between both the NDR and NPDR/ME- and NPDR/ME+ group (P<0.01 for both comparisons). There were no differences in patient ages among the groups. Conclusion: Our results showed that the CBF in the foveal region is significantly reduced in patients with diabetes, especially those with macular edema. Moreover, our data indicate that the decrease in CBF in the foveal region may be associated with development and progression of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema.
Keywords: 388 diabetic retinopathy • 460 macula/fovea • 356 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques