Retinal sensitivity measured by photopic and scotopic microperimetry in type 1 diabetics without retinopathy, and its correlation with the thickness of the ganglion cell complex.

Abstract

Purpose : DM1 is a growing pathology whose management is still under development. The age of diagnosis is usually between 10 and 14 years old, so early diagnosis is very important; We propose microperimetry (MP) as a part of this process and its correlation with the structure of the ganglion cell complex (GCC) evaluated by optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Methods : A descriptive, cross-sectional and comparative study was carried out in type 1 diabetic patients without signs of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Structural OCT was performed using a 9 mm macular cube with the Nidek RS 3000 Advanced 2 equipment (Nidek, Gamagori, Japan) and retinal sensitivity (RS) values were obtained by micropermitry in 13 specifically located points in scotopic and photopic mode using the Nidek MP3s (Nidek, Gamagori, Japan). Finally, the statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 25 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA).

Results : 148 eyes of 75 subjects were analyzed, 36 diabetic patients without diabetic retinopathy and 39 healthy volunteers, the photopic mean retinal sensitivity (MRS) in the diabetic group was 30.5 +/- 1.98 dB, lower than the mean in the healthy group (31.12 +/- 1.27 dB, p = 0.05). In scotopic mode, MRS was lower (14.53 +/- 1.21 dB) than the mean of the control group (14.64 +/- 1.45 dB), however, they were not statistically significant (p = 0.063). Correlation between retinal sensitivity (RS), and GCC thickness has been found both in diabetics (0.279; p = 0.022) as well as in the control group (0.238; p = 0.007), however, it has not been seen that the group of diabetics present a significant decrease in the GCC thickness compared to the healthy group.

Conclusions : The average photopic MRS of diabetic patients is 30.68 +/- 1.92 dB, lower than the MRS in healthy volunteers with similar characteristics. Despite showing correlation between RS and GCC thickness in both groups; it has not been significantly lower in patients with DM1 without diabetic retinopathy signs, compared to healthy population.

This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.