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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1404157
This article is part of the Research Topic Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) Applications in Ocular Complications of Diabetic Mellitus View all 3 articles

Quantiative analysis of peri-papillary RNFL capillary density and thickness in patients with mild nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy

Provisionally accepted
Zelie Cao Zelie Cao Tao Tian Tao Tian Ru Liu Ru Liu Jinli Peng Jinli Peng Guoping Kuang Guoping Kuang *
  • Department of Ophthalmology, The Affiliated Chenzhou Hospital, HengyangMedical School, University of South China, Chenzhou, Hunan 423000, China, Chenzhou, Hunan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) was used to compare the changes of capillary density and thickness of the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) without diabetic retinopathy (DR) and patients with mild nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR).In this prospective cross-sectional study, 62, 85 and 75 eyes of normal control group (NC), DM group and NPDR group were included respectively. All subjects received optic disc centered 6 × 6mm fundus scan. The annular region outside the optic disc boundary was divided into eight sectors: nasal superior (NS), nasal inferior (NI), inferior nasal (IN), inferior temporal (IT), temporal superior (TS), temporal inferior (TI), superior nasal (SN), and superior temporal (ST). The average RNFL thickness, average capillary density, and changes in thickness and capillary density of each sector in the annular region were calculated.Compared with the NC group, the average capillary density of pRNFL in patients with DM and NPDR group decreased significantly (p <0.001), and there were significant differences in capillary density in all sectors except the IN sector in the DM group. There was no significant difference in the average thickness of pRNFL between the groups. Only the thickness of ST and IT in DM group and NPDR group was significantly lower than that in the control group.In addition, the ROC curve of pRNFL average capillary density has high sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing DR from healthy eyes (AUC=0.852)The pRNFL average capillary density in diabetic patients without DR and patients with mild NPDR was significantly lower than that in healthy controls, especially in the NPDR group.

    Keywords: Diabetic Retinopathy, optical coherence tomography angiography, optic disc, Vascular density of the peripapillary radial capillary plexus, retinal nerve fiber layer

    Received: 20 Mar 2024; Accepted: 27 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cao, Tian, Liu, Peng and Kuang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Guoping Kuang, Department of Ophthalmology, The Affiliated Chenzhou Hospital, HengyangMedical School, University of South China, Chenzhou, Hunan 423000, China, Chenzhou, Hunan Province, China

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