Purpose This study was undertaken to investigate the neurovascular changes in the retina of prediabetic subjects. Methods Subjects enroled in a prospective study were separated into prediabetic and normal control groups based on their glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1C) levels, fasting and postprandial blood sugar levels and glucose tolerance test. All the subjects underwent detailed ophthalmic evaluation, which included fundus examination, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), and multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG). Comparisons were done between the groups using the Wilcoxon signed rank test.
ResultsThe median age was 48 years for the normal controls (n = 40), and 49.5 years for prediabetic subjects (n = 45) (p = 0.306). There was no difference in the vision, contrast sensitivity, thickness of the ganglion cell complex or the foveal avascular zone parameters between the groups. But the central foveal thickness and subfoveal choroidal thickness were significantly reduced in prediabetics (p < 0.01). The mfERG showed significant differences in the amplitude. The average amplitude was 35 ± 12 nv/deg 2 in the normals and 29 ± 11 nv/deg 2 in the prediabetics (p = 0.003). A weak positive correlation was noted between the mfERG and vascular parameters in the prediabetic group. Conclusions The prediabetic stage reveals earliest functional neuronal changes in the retina. The neuronal function seems to be affected much earlier than clinically appreciable structural changes in the ganglion cell complex and precedes vascular changes in the retina.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate early vascular and tomographic changes in the retina of diabetic patients using artificial intelligence (AI). The study included 74 age‐matched normal eyes, 171 diabetic eyes without retinopathy (DWR) eyes and 69 mild non‐proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) eyes. All patients underwent optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) imaging. Tomographic features (thickness and volume) were derived from the OCTA B‐scans. These features were used in AI models. Both OCT and OCTA features showed significant differences between the groups (P < .05). However, the OCTA features indicated early retinal changes in DWR eyes better than OCT (P < .05). In the AI model using both OCT and OCTA features simultaneously, the best area under the curve of 0.91 ± 0.02 was obtained (P < .05). Thus, the combined use of AI, OCT and OCTA significantly improved the early diagnosis of diabetic changes in the retina.
We report a case of a 52-year-old man with diminution of vision in both eyes at night for 15 days with mild retinal pigment epithelium changes at the macula and a tessellated background on fundus examination. Given his history of chronic alcohol consumption and jaundice two weeks back, vitamin A deficiency was contemplated. Electroretinogram (ERG) showed diminished responses. Serum retinol was 17 μg/dl. On supplementation with vitamin A, symptoms improved and ERG was normal; however, serum retinol levels were still low at 8.98 μg/dl. Thus, serum retinol does not necessarily indicate response to treatment, and ERG is necessitated in such cases.
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