The present study aimed to compare the choroidal thickness of the patients diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) with no sign of diabetic retinopathty (DR) in the endocrinology policlinic and with the choroidal thickness of healthy subjects.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: The patients were screened at horizontal level using spectral domain optical coherence tomography device (Nidek SLO/Spectral OCT (RS 3000)). Choroidal thickness was measured from a total of seven points in the subfoveal area horizontally at 600μm intervals to a distance of 1200 μm in the nasal and temporal quadrants. The patients with type 1 diabetes were assigned to Group 1 and the control subjects were assigned to Group 2. Patients with corneal opacity, cataract, retinal disease, family history of glaucoma or history of ocular surgery, uncontrolled hypertension, and cardiovascular disorders were excluded.
RESULTS: The study comprised 20 eyes of 10 Type 1 DM patients without DR and 16 eyes of eight control subjects. No significant difference was determined between the groups in terms of age, gender, spherical equivalent, best corrected visual acuity, intraocular pressure and axial length. In Group 1, subfoveal choroidal thickness was 311.6μm in the right eye and 348.7μm in the left eye. In Group 2, subfoveal choroidal thickness was 377.1μm in the right eye and 368.9μm in the left eye. The choroidal thickness has become thinner in the nasal vs. temporal quadrant both in Group 1 and Group 2 (p=0.039). Comparing the choroidal thickness between the groups, it was found to be higher in Group 2, but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.214).
CONCLUSIONS: Type 1 diabetes mellitus has more aggressive impacts on the eye than those of type 2 diabetes, but it appears to have lower impact on the choroid, which is rich in vascular structure. Although choroidal thickness was determined to be decreased in type 1 diabetes mellitus, the results were not statistically significant. We assume that the results might change in case the data is augmented with larger number of type 1 diabetes mellitus patients. Moreover, manual measurement of choroidal thickness using SD-OCT may give different results.
Primary Language | English |
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Subjects | Health Care Administration |
Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | February 25, 2019 |
Acceptance Date | May 28, 2018 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 |