ASSESSMENT OF MORPHOLOGY OF DIABETIC MACULAR EDEMA WITH OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH VISUAL ACUITY IN KASHMIR

PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess the severity of Macular Edema in patients with diabetic macular edema using Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT), a technique for high-resolution cross-sectional imaging of the retina and to describe various morphologic patterns of diabetic macular edema (DME) demonstrated by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and correlate them with visual acuity. METHODS: A total of 158 eyes of 100 patients with diabetic retinopathy were studied. Optical coherence tomograms were obtained in a radial spoke pattern centered on the fovea. Macular thickness was reported numerically as averages in each of nine regions. All patients with DME underwent OCT evaluation. The OCT scans were evaluated for the presence of diffuse retinal thickening (DRT), cystoid macular edema (CME), posterior hyaloidal traction (PHT), serous retinal detachment (SRD), and traction retinal detachment (TRD), the retinal thickness was measured and correlated with visual acuity. RESULTS: Optical coherence tomography was able to quantify the development of both foveal and extrafoveal macular thickening. The (Mean +/- SD) Central Macular thickness was (502.8 +/- 121.9) in eyes with NPDR and (534.3 +/- 152.1) in eyes with PDR. Foveal thickness measured by OCT was highly correlated with visual acuity. Two hundred two OCT scans of 158 eyes of 100 patients were identified. OCT revealed five morphologic patterns of DME: DRT (61.88%); CME (24.75%), SRD without PHT (6.93%); PHT without TRD (5.45%); PHT with TRD (0.99%). Increasing retinal thickness in all patterns was significantly correlated with worse visual acuity (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Optical coherence tomography was a useful technique for quantifying macular thickness in patients with diabetic macular edema. DME exhibits five different morphologic patterns on OCT. There is a significant correlation between retinal thickness and visual acuity.