Abstract
Purpose :
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) provides to significant visual impairment or blindness. DR occurs within several to some dozen years of the onset of diabetes (DM). In view of the above, early DR prophylaxis is substantial. One of the early symptoms of functional retinal disorder in DM are alterations in retinal sensitivity, estimated by microperimetry. The etiopathogenesis of DR is complex and results from biochemical abnormalities in the nervous and glial cells within the retina as well as blood flow dysfunctions in the retinal microcirculation. Alpha-lipoic acid and vitamin B1 have proven therapeutic effect in the prophylaxis and treatment of peripheral neuropathy in patients suffering from DM.
The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of the oral administration of alpha-lipoic acid, B1 and B2 vitamins and rutoside on retinal sensitivity (RS) in patients with diabetes.
Methods :
The study was performed on 38 patients with DM (76 eyes). All subjects with DM presented well controlled diabetic status. RS was evaluated by means of the Macular Integrity Assessment device (Maia, CenterVue). Macular integrity index (MI), average threshold (AT) and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were assessed. Based on initial results of MI patients were divided into 2 groups: group 1 (n=17; age=59,0+/-10,5) with pathologic MI (above 40), group 2 (n=27; age=62,3+/-7,0) with proper MI (40 or below). All patients received daily 1 capsule of the product Retixoft (Ret) containing: 300 mg of alpha-lipoic acid, 1.1 mg of vitamin B1, 1.4 mg of vitamin B2 and 25 mg of rutoside for 6 months.
Results :
In group 1 MI decreased from 67,5 to 43,1 (p<0,001), AT increased from 27,0 to 28,1 (ns) and BCVA increased from 0,6 to 0,7 (ns). In group 2 MI decreased from 11,7 to 8,5 (ns), AT increased from 29,6 to 30,4 (ns) and BCVA remain unchanged at 0,9.
Conclusions :
Alpha-lipoic acid, B1 and B2 vitamins as well as rutoside improve retinal sensitivity in patients with diabetes and can be considered as an early prophylaxis of DR. Futher studies based on a bigger cohort of patiens will confirm the effectiveness of that treatment.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.