Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate quantitative differences in optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) data between DM1 patients with no signs of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and non-diabetic subjects.
Methods :
OCTA imaging was performed on DM1 patients with no signs of nonproliferative DR and healthy, age matched controls. Parafoveal vessel density as well as foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area in superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and the deep capillary plexus (DCP) were calculated with automated quantification software and compared between patient cohorts.
Results :
A significant decrease in parafoveal vessel density was seen in the DCP of DM1 patients compared to non-diabetic controls (58.7% ± 3.6% vs 60.7% ± 2.4%, P=0.029). There was no significant difference in SCP parafoveal vessel density, DCP FAZ area, or SCP FAZ area between cohorts. There was no significant correlation between diabetes duration and HbA1c% and the reduction of parafoveal vessel density in DCP (r=-0.29, p=0.12; r=-0.13, p=0.52).
Conclusions :
DM1 patients with no signs of diabetic retinopathy showed reduced parafoveal vessel density in the DCP on OCTA when compared to non-diabetic controls. These OCTA finding suggests that parafoveal capillary nonperfusion represents an early process in DM1 related retinal changes and occurs initially at the level of the DCP. Further investigation is needed to understand the prognostic role of these vascular changes.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.