Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the presence of epiretinal membrane（ERM）and their related factors in diabetic patients.
Methods :
Clinical charts and OCT images of 730 diabetic patients (1460 eyes) who underwent diabetic retinopathy screening in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center from October 2017 to June 2018 were reviewed and analyzed. 18 of them who refused the dilated ophthalmic examinations, had low quality of OCT images, or whose best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was lower than 0.05 were excluded. ERM were further graded into 4 stages according to Govetto et al study in 2017. Stage1 are ERMs with mild macular changes. Stage 2 are ERMs associated with widening of the outer nuclear layer and loss of the foveal depression. Stage 3 ERMs are associated with continuous ectopic inner foveal layers crossing the entire foveal area. Stage 4 ERMs are thick and associated with continuous ectopic inner foveal layers and retinal layers that could not be clearly defined. Age, gender, BMI index, blood pressure, and blood lipids were selected and SPSS 22.0 statistical software was used for statistical analysis.
Results :
45 patients (48 eyes) have ERMs and 90 non-ERM (NERM) patients were randomly selected as control group. Among these ERM eyes, 70.83% (34 eyes), 25.00% (12 eyes) and 8.33% (4 eyes) were graded Stage 1 , 2 and 3 respectively, and macular holes were also discovered in 3 ERM eyes. The mean BCVA of ERM eyes and NERM eyes is 0.53 and 0.63 respectively (P=0.006). But there is no significant difference in the mean intraocular pressure (P=0.63). Only age was associated with ERM (P=0.03), while gender, BMI index, blood pressure, and blood lipids was not correlated.
Conclusions :
In this study, 6.32% of diabetic patients developed the ERM and have lower vision than NERM patients. Only age was found to be associated with ERM, and further more study may be needed to examine the factors that influence the development of the ERM.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.