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Relationship between choroidal structure and duration of diabetes

Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology volume 257, pages 1133–1140 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the choroidal structure of diabetic patients without diabetic retinopathy (DR) and duration of diabetes.

Methods

This study is a retrospective observational study in diabetic patients without DR. Eyes with diabetes mellitus (DM) (n = 105) were divided into two groups based on the duration: long duration group (over 10 years, n = 31) and short duration group (less than 10 years, n = 74). One hundred seventeen eyes of non-diabetic patients were used as control group. All patients underwent enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography, and the choroidal structure was analyzed using a binarization method.

Results

There was no significant difference in areas of total choroid and lumina/stroma or central choroidal thickness (CCT) between control and DM groups. In contrast, lumina/total choroidal (L/C) ratio was significantly lower in diabetic eyes than in control eyes (P = 0.02). Although there was no significant difference in the areas or CCT between short and long duration groups, L/C ratio was significantly lower in the long duration group than in the short duration group (P = 0.03).

Conclusions

The current study suggests that choroidal vasculature is involved in the diabetic eyes and that the choroidal structure has changed with duration of diabetes. Our study points out that L/C ratio is a new potential biomarker in monitoring choroidal vascular disorders in diabetic eyes without DR.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Michiyuki Saito for his technical assistance in evaluation of the manuscript.

Funding

No funding was received for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Teine Keijinkai Hospital, Sapporo, Japan

    Hiroaki Endo, Yuki Ito, Mitsuo Takahashi, Satoshi Katsuta & Manabu Kase

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, N15 W7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8638, Japan

    Satoru Kase & Susumu Ishida

  3. Teine Yokoi Eye Clinic, Sapporo, Japan

    Masahiko Yokoi

  4. Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan

    Shozo Sonoda & Taiji Sakamoto

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  1. Hiroaki Endo
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Endo, H., Kase, S., Ito, Y. et al. Relationship between choroidal structure and duration of diabetes. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 257, 1133–1140 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-019-04295-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-019-04295-1

Keywords

  • Diabetic retinopathy
  • Choroidal vasculature
  • Binarization
  • Diabetes mellitus
  • Diabetes duration