Abstract
Purpose :
Macular telangiectasia type 2 (MacTel) is a vision-altering retinal disease with a high prevalence of diabetes. Fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO) was used to further investigate differences between MacTel patients with and without diabetes.
Methods :
89 eyes from 89 patients with MacTel (mean age 59 ± 12 years) were investigated at the Moran Eye Center, with the diagnosis of MacTel confirmed by the Moorfields reading center. 40 patients (45%) did not have diabetes, 16 eyes (18%) were prediabetic, and 33 patients (37%) were diabetic. Of these, 5 patients had diabetic retinopathy. A prototype Heidelberg Engineering FLIO was used to obtain autofluorescence lifetimes in short (SSC, 498-560 nm) and long (LSC, 560-720 nm) spectral channels from different areas of interest within the MacTel zone and in the periphery.
Results :
FLIO lifetimes did not show significant differences in any area when comparing diabetic to nondiabetic eyes (MacTel zone SSC diabetic: 265 ± 57 ps, nondiabetic: 259 ± 49 ps, p=0.59; LSC diabetic: 333 ± 64 ps, nondiabetic: 317 ± 52 ps, p=0.23). When comparing nondiabetic eyes to eyes with diabetic retinopathy, significant differences were only found in the periphery (P<0.01) but not within the MacTel zone (P=0.22). Longitudinal changes in FLIO within the MacTel zone were similarly unrelated to the diabetes status.
Conclusions :
Although MacTel has a high prevalence of diabetes, FLIO lifetimes from the MacTel zone seem to be unrelated to diabetes. This indicates that FLIO retains diagnostic abilities in patients with MacTel even in the presence of prediabetes, diabetes, and advanced diabetic retinopathy.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.