Investigation of the association between diabetic macular edema and retinal ischemic areas

The present study aimed to investigate the association between diabetic macular edema (DME) and retinal ischemic areas without laser treatment in DME patients, on whom fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) was performed.' TA findings of 180 diabetic patients were evaluated in the Eye Clinic of Adana Numune Training and Research Hospital between January 2014 and March 2015. 180 diabetic patients were divided into two groups. 108 patients with DR in whom DN1E was detected by FFA were classified as Group 1 (DME group) and 72 patients in whom DME was not detected by IYA were classified as Group 2. In particular, whether or not there were any retinal ischemic areas without laser treatment was investigated. While ischemic retina area without laser treatment was detected in 75 (69.4%) patients in Group 1 (DME group), only 27 (37.5%) patients in Group 2 were identified as ischemic retina area without laser treatment. This prominent difference between the two groups were statistically significant (p<0.001). In patients in Group 1, severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) were determined more as compared to the other group which had no DME. In the present study, retinal ischemic areas were identified to be associated with DME.