Purpose: To determine whether diabetes causes changes of central macular thickness (CMT), nerve fiber layer (NFL) and ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thickness, and to investigate the possible relationship between this changes and duration of diabetes mellitus and glycemic control (HbA1c). Materials and Methods: Mean CMT, NFL and GCIPL thickness of 60 eyes without DR and 60 eyes with minimal DR was calculated following automated segmentation of 3D-Topcon 2000 OCT images of 85 diabetic patients. A control group of 60 eyes of 60 age-matched healthy volunteers was included for comparison. To determine the correlation between CMT, inner retinal layers thickness and diabetes duration, and HbA1c levels, a Pearson correlation analysis was used. Results: The mean CMT, NFL and GCIPL thickness in eyes without DR was 210,08μm, 34,75μm and 68,55μm, respectively; in eyes with minimal DR was 214,2μm, 35,63μm and 70,83μm, respectively and in healthy eyes was 214,73μm, 35,53μm and 69,35μm, respectively. There was no significant difference in CMT, NFL and GCIPL thickness between studied groups. There was positive significant correlation between CMT and diabetes duration (p=0.005) and negative significant correlation between GCIPL thickness and diabetes duration (p=0.013), and between NFL+GCIPL and diabetes duration (p=0.04). No relationship between CMT, NFL and GCIPL thicknesses and HbA1c was present. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated absence of difference between CMT, NFL, GCIPL thickness of diabetic patients without or with minimal diabetic retinopathy, compared with normal eyes. Despite this, we found relationship between CMT and inner retinal layers thickness, and diabetes duration.
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