Background: Diabetic retinopathy (DR), also known as diabetic eye disease, is a retinal damage that occurs due to diabetes. Blindness can be the end result of diabetic retinopathy.
Objective: To evaluate the relation of macular thickness to glycosylated hemoglobin in patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Patients and Methods: This study included 100 eyes of 100 patients with a diagnosis of type 2 DM. This was designed as an observational, cross-sectional and non-cohort study during the period from 6/2019 to 3/2020. One hundred eyes were divided into two equal groups: one group included diabetic patients with no diabetic retinopathy and the other group included diabetic patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Patients were recruited from Retinal clinic in Al-Azhar University Hospital and asked to participate in this study.
Results: The results showed that non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) group and group of no DR were comparable as regard age, sex and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). There was a statistically insignificant difference between group of no DR and NPDR group, but group of no DR had shorter duration of DM, lower HbA1c level, lower macular thickness in all of the 9 standard early treatment diabetic retinopathy study (ETDRS) subfields, lower total macular volume (TMV) than NPDR Group. The results showed that central subfield macular thickness (CST) is positively and significantly related to glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level in each group of no DR and NPDR, and that severity of DR stage was significantly increased with increased HbA1c levels. The results also showed that there's significant positive association between severity of DR stage and macular thickness in all of the nine standard ETDRS subfields. There was a positive significant relation between duration of DM and HbA1c level in type 2 diabetic patients, while there was no significant relation between duration of DM and macular thickness. The results also showed significant inverse relation between insulin use and HbA1c level, and significant inverse relation between insulin use and prevalence of DR in type 2 diabetic patients.
Conclusion: Increased incidence of DR, increased macular thickness and increased incidence of diabetic macular edema were associated with increased level of glycosylated hemoglobin in type II diabetic patients.