CHOROIDAL THICKNESS IN DIABETIC PATIENTS WITHOUT DIABETIC RETINOPATHY

Purpose: To compare choroidal thickness (CT) between diabetic patients without diabetic retinopathy and a nondiabetic group. To explore how CT relates to disease duration, mean arterial pressure, glycemia, glycosylated hemoglobin, intraocular pressure, and ocular pulse amplitude. Methods: Choroidal thickness was assessed using a spectral-domain optical coherence tomography and enhanced depth mode at 13 locations (subfoveal and 3 measurements 500 mu m apart in 4 directions-nasal, temporal, superior, and inferior). Linear regression models were used. Results: One hundred seventy-five patients were recruited (125 diabetic patients without diabetic retinopathy and 50 nondiabetic patients). In diabetic patients, although without statistical significance, CT showed a trend to be thicker in all locations (6.16-24.27 mu m). Choroidal thickness was negatively associated with age (P < 0.001) in both groups, but only in the diabetic group, it was positively associated to ocular pulse amplitude (with a mean increase between 8.5 mu m and 11.6 mu m for each millimeter of mercury increase in ocular pulse amplitude). Diabetic patients' CT seems to stabilize after 150 months of diabetes, increase with higher glycemia levels (>160 mg/dL) while showing no fluctuation with glycosylated hemoglobin and mean arterial pressure. Conclusion: There seems to be a thickening of the choroid in diabetic patients without diabetic retinopathy. Moreover, this tissue may be functionally different in diabetes, as the pattern of associations seems to differ between groups.