Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To evaluate the effect of one time intravitreal injection of taurine on the vision recovery in the proliferative diabetic retinopathy patients after pars plana vitrectomy. Methods: Before vitrectomy, baseline opthalmoscopic, B-scan ultrasonographic, external eye examinations of the eye were carried out on each patient, as well as ERG, visual field and visual acuity measurements. Only one eye per subject was permitted for entry into the study. Thirty-five subjects were enrolled into 4 study arms as follows: a) control group: 11 subjects received an intravitreal injection of sterile saline solution (0.9% sodium chloride); and in the other 3 groups b), c) and d); in each of the 8 subjects received 1, 5, or 10mg/250 µl intravitreal injection of taurine. In the last 3 groups, the 4% taurine solution known as Taufon (made in Russia) was diluted in steriline saline. All subjects had follow-up visits for 2 months post-treatment and complete examinations noted above were carried, on the following schedule: 1st, 15th, 30th and 60th day after their vitrectomy. Results: The most noticeable differences among the different study groups have been revealed during visual acuity measurements. In the control group, visual acuity before surgery was 0.081±0.029 and after 60 days - 0.23±0.032. Visual acuity before surgery and after 60 days was; in b) group 0.085±0.039 and 0.3±0.15, in c) group 0.073±0.016, then 0.43±0.0196, in d) group 0.1±0.068 and 0.44±0.24. Confidence interval 90%. Goldmann visual field measurements showed that total average loss in control group after 60 days was 15º while in the group d) received the highest taurine was remarkably lower - 7º. Ultrasonography revealed the lowest macular edema after 60th day of surgery in d) group, average statistic estimation - 0.12 against 0.35 for other groups. Conclusion: One can conclude about the preventative ability of taurine at high doses promoting to the recovery of the eye structures. There are also other results associated with the intermediate 15 and 30 days after surgery as well as results found from the ERG and visual field measurements supporting this conclusion. In addition to well known osmoregulatory, inotropic, antioxidative neuroprotective and other power, probably taurine's ability to promote retinoids transport has also played its protective role in current observation. However, yet we are far from establishing taurine's complete ophthalmological potential.
Keywords: 595 taurine • 388 diabetic retinopathy • 628 vitreoretinal surgery