Abstract
Purpose :
Several studies have shown that retinal neurodegeneration may occur prior to the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). The purpose of the current study is to compare the thickness, as measured by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), of the different retinal layers in the macular area of diabetic patients without diabetic retinopathy (DR) and non-diabetic patients.
Methods :
A retrospective cross sectional comparative study of 43 diabetic patients without DR and 24 non-diabetic patients was conducted. All eyes underwent SD-OCT of the macular area. The different retinal layers (nerve fiber layer, ganglion cell layer, inner nuclear layer, inner plexiform layer, outer plexiform layer and outer nuclear layers were automatically segmented by the SD-OCT software (Spectralis, Heidelberg Engineering V 6.3a). A 2 tail unpaired student t test was used to statistically compare the mean between both groups.
Results :
The mean ± SD thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer, ganglion cell layer, inner plexiform, inner nuclear, outer plexiform and outer nuclear in the macular area were compared in diabetic patients without DR and in non diabetic patients (2 tail unpaired t test). (Table 1)
Conclusions :
The thickness of the different retinal layers of diabetic patients without DR and non-diabetic patients was not statistically different.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.