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Glucose metabolism affects macular thickness in diabetic patients
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SEATTLE — Pericentral macular thickness decreased in diabetic patients with worsening glucose metabolism, which may reflect early neurodegenerative changes, according to a poster presented here.
“Macular thinning may be an early sign of diabetic retinopathy and macular thickening may be a sign of diabetic macular edema,” Eline E. De Clerck, MD, and colleagues said in the poster at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting. “We therefore evaluated to what extent macular thickness differed between individuals with prediabetes and individuals with type 2 diabetes with or without cysts compared with individuals with a normal glucose metabolism.”
The study included 2,385 patients from the Maastricht Study, of which 1,397 patients had normal glucose metabolism, 357 patients had prediabetes and 631 patients had type 2 diabetes.
Researchers used spectral domain optical coherence tomography to measure the macular thickness in five ETDRS subfields.
After adjusting for age, sex and spherical equivalent, prediabetic patients showed a mean decrease of 3.34 μm in pericentral superior macular thickness, a statistically significant difference when compared with values in patients with normal glucose metabolism (P < .01).
In diabetic patients without cystoid macular edema, the four pericentral quadrants were statistically significantly thinner, ranging from a mean of 5.42 μm to 5.91 μm, than in patients with normal glucose metabolism (P < .001).
Diabetic patients with cystoid macular edema had a mean increase of 27.22 μm in foveal thickness (P < .01) and mean increase in center thickness of 42.03 μm (P < .001)
“The foveal and center thicknesses significantly increase once cysts are present. Imaging and quantification of the macular thickness give the opportunity to study diabetic neuronal changes and to detect cystoid macular edema,” De Clerck and colleagues said. – by Nhu Te
Reference:
De Clerck E. Glucose metabolism status is associated with changes in macular thickness: The Maastricht Study. Presented at: ARVO; May 1-5, 2016; Seattle, Washington.
Disclosure: De Clerck reports no relevant financial disclosures.