Abstract
Purpose :
To characterize full-field electroretinogram (ffERG) in patients with early sickle-cell retinopathy according to hemoglobin type.
Methods :
In this pilot study, we included patients with non proliferative sickle-cell retinopathy, with bilateral preserved visual acuity (>20/25), between November 2014 to April 2016. All patient underwent a ffERG, according to the ISCEV standards. Six eyes of healthy patients were used as control group. Scotopic ERG responses as a, b wave amplitudes and b/a ratio of the dark adapted (DA) 3.0 and 10.0 cd.s.m-2 stimulation were the primary outcome measures. Result analysis was performed according to hemoglobin type (HbSS or HbSC) and compared to the control group.
Results :
Eighteen patients were included: 6 HbSS; 6 HbSC and 6 healthy patients. Comparison between the HbSS group and the HbSC group revealed that the b wave amplitude and b/a ratio of DA3.0 (respectively p=0.037 and p=0.0006) and of DA10.0 (respectively p=0.043 and p=0.0010) ERG response was significantly lower in the HbSS group. However, no differences were found in the a wave amplitude of both DA3.0 and 10.0 in either group.
Conclusions :
Dark adapted ERG response in the HbSS group suggests an early involvement of the inner retina, which may explain the fact that HbSS patients have a lower incidence of proliferative lesions, compared to HbSC patients.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.