Abstract
Purpose :
We previously described thickness differences in neuroretinal layers (i.e. retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell inner plexiform layer) between patients with and without diabetes. The goal of this study was to evaluate thickness differences in the non-neuroretinal layers of patients with diabetes and either no or mild diabetic retinopathy (no/mild DR) compared to those without diabetes.
Methods :
We included participants from the UK Biobank who underwent fundus photographs and macula-centered spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) using the Heidelberg Spectralis SD-OCT (Heidelberg, Germany). Participants with any pathologic retinal finding other than mild diabetic retinopathy or poor-quality OCT scans (quality scores less than 20) were excluded. We used two multivariable linear regression models, with (model A) and without (model B) adjusting for total retinal thickness (TRT) to examine differences in retinal layer thicknesses between participants with no/mild DR and participants without diabetes. The regression models for each retinal layer were adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), refractive error, logMAR visual acuity, eye diseases, systemic diseases, alcohol use, education score, and deprivation index.
Results :
We analyzed data from 64,215 participants without diabetes and 2,687 participants with no/mild DR. The inner segment/outer segment junction and the outer segment were significantly thinner in participants with no/mild DR in both models (-0.06 um, 95% CI: -0.10, -0.03, p = 0.001 (model A); -0.06 um, 95% CI: -0.10, -0.03, p = 0.001 (model B)) and (-0.17 um, 95% CI: -0.23, -0.11, p < 0.001 (model A); -0.12 um, 95% CI: -0.18, -0.06, p < 0.001 (model B)), respectively. The inner nuclear layer was thicker in participants with no/mild DR after adjusting for TRT (p=0.01). The outer nuclear layer was thinner in participants with no/mild DR before adjusting for TRT (p=0.007), but there was no significant difference after adjusting for TRT (p=0.32).
Conclusions :
We found significant differences in some retinal thickness between participants with no/mild DR and those with no diabetes, but the small magnitudes may be of limited clinical significance. Prospective studies would be needed to evaluate these differences over time.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.