Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the retinal and choroidal vasculature changes in type 2 diabetic patients with and without chronic kidney disease using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).
Methods :
Cross-sectional study. One hundred and two diabetic patients without diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and 28 with DKD recruited from a tertiary eye clinic in Singapore, were included in this study. All subjects aged 40 years old and above. DKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) below 60mL/min/1.73m2. All subjects underwent 3X3mm2 scans using a swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (PlexElite 9000, Zeiss Meditec). Vessel density (VD) and perfusion density (PD) were evaluated separately for large vessels and capillaries in the superficial vascular plexus (SCP). For the choroidal vasculature, flow void density was evaluated on the choriocapillaris slab. All OCTA metrics were compared between the two groups using a t-test.
Results :
The VD was significantly higher in the DKD group compared with the non-DKD group only for large vessels (4.0 ± 0.7 vs 3.6 ± 0.6, p = 0.005). There was no significant change in VD for capillaries between the two groups (14.7 ± 3.6 vs 15.1 ± 2.8, p = 0.58). The PD of large vessels and capillaries was not significantly different between the two groups (all p >0.1). Choriocapillaris flow void density was significantly higher in the DKD group compared with the non-DKD group (18.2 ± 1.8 vs 17.2 ± 1.3, p=0.01).
Conclusions :
Type 2 diabetic subjects with chronic kidney disease have increased vessel density in the large retinal vessels and increased choriocapillaris flow void density compared with subjects without DKD. Larger sample size is required to understand if these chorioretinal vasculature changes are independent of diabetic retinopathy.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.