Abstract
Purpose
To identify damage to the inner retinal layer and microvasculature in the peripapillary area according to the severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR).
Methods
Patients were divided into four groups: control (group 1), type 2 diabetes (T2DM) without DR (group 2), mild to moderate nonproliferative DR (NPDR) (group 3), and severe NPDR (group 4). The peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness and peripapillary vessel density (VD) were compared. Linear regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with the DR severity.
Results
The average pRNFL thicknesses were 96.2 ± 7.1, 94.1 ± 9.6, 92.0 ± 9.9, and 90.3 ± 12.4 μm in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively (P = 0.003) (post hoc analyses: group 1 vs. group 2, P = 0.529; group 2 vs. group 3, P = 0.627; group 2 vs. group 4, P = 0.172; group 3 vs. group 4, P = 0.823). The VDs of the outer ring were 18.9 ± 0.6, 18.4 ± 0.8, 17.9 ± 1.1, and 17.3 ± 1.6 mm−1 in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively (P < 0.001) (all pairwise comparisons, P < 0.050). In multivariate analysis, the VD of the outer ring (B = − 0.35, P < 0.001) was significantly associated with the DR severity.
Conclusions
The peripapillary microvasculature reflects retinal damage following DR progression better than the structure of the pRNFL.
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Design and conduct of the study (M.W.L., J.T.K.); Collection of data (J.T.K., H.J.S.); Analysis and interpretation of data (M.W.L., K.Y.N.); Writing the article (M.W.L., J.T.K.); Critical revision of the article (M.W.L., K.Y.N.); Final approval of the article (M.W.L., J.T.K., H.J.S., K.Y.N.)
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This is study was performed in accordance to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board/Ethics Committee of Konyang University Hospital, Daejeon, Republic of Korea (No. 2023-05-028). This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
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The requirement for informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board/Ethics Committee of Konyang University Hospital due to the retrospective nature of the study.
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Lee, MW., Kim, JT., Seong, HJ. et al. Peripapillary microvasculature and retinal nerve fiber layer damage according to the severity of diabetic retinopathy. Acta Diabetol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-024-02308-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-024-02308-y