Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 27;13(15):2513.
doi: 10.3390/diagnostics13152513.

Retinal Photoreceptors and Microvascular Changes in the Assessment of Diabetic Retinopathy Progression: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study

Magdalena Kupis  1 , Zbigniew M Wawrzyniak  2 , Jacek P Szaflik  1 , Anna Zaleska-Żmijewska  1
Affiliations

Retinal Photoreceptors and Microvascular Changes in the Assessment of Diabetic Retinopathy Progression: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study

Magdalena Kupis et al. Diagnostics (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: With the increasing global incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM), diabetic retinopathy (DR) has become one of the leading causes of blindness in developed countries. DR leads to changes in retinal neurons and microcirculation. Rtx1TM (Imagine Eyes, Orsay, France) is a retinal camera that allows histological visualisations of cones and retinal microcirculation throughout the DM duration.

Objective: This study aimed to analyse the cones and retinal microvascular changes in 50 diabetic individuals and 18 healthy volunteers. The patients participated in the initial visit and two follow-up appointments, one and two years after the study, beginning with Rtx1TM image acquisition, visual acuity assessment, macular OCT scans and blood measurements.

Results: The study revealed significant differences in the cone density, mosaic arrangement and vascular morphology between healthy and diabetic patients. The final measurements showed decreased photoreceptor and microvascular parameters in the DR group compared with the control group. Furthermore, in the 2-year follow-up, both groups' Rtx1TM-acquired morphological changes were statistically significant.

Conclusions: Rtx1TM technology was successfully used as a non-invasive method of photoreceptors and retinal vasculature assessment over time in patients with diabetic retinopathy. The study revealed a trend toward more vascular morphological changes occurring over time in diabetic patients.

Keywords: adaptive optics; cone morphology; diabetic retinopathy; retinal microcirculation; rtx-1 technology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no conflict of interest. None of the authors had any financial interest concerning the presented subject.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Image of the macular region with four retinal acquisitions, ROI (region of interest) for a DR patient initially (upper) and after a 2-year time (lower) captured by rtx1TM AO retinal camera. Cone analysis included: regularity (%), dispersion (%), density (cone/mm2) and spacing (µm).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Image of the retinal artery of a DR patient captured by rtx1TM AO retinal camera in three different acquisitions: ROI (region of interest), initially (upper) and after a 2-year observation time (lower). The charts present the following parameters: Lumen diam—lumen diameter; Total diam—total diameter; wall1 and wall2, WCSA—cross-sectional wall area; —WLR—wall-to-lumen ratio.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Saeedi P., Petersohn I., Salpea P., Malanda B., Karuranga S., Unwin N., Colagiuri S., Guariguata L., Motala A.A., Ogurtsova K., et al. Global and regional diabetes prevalence estimates for 2019 and projections for 2030 and 2045: Results from the International Diabetes Federation Diabetes Atlas, 9th edition. Diabetes Res. Clin. Pract. 2019;157:107843. doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2019.107843. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pascolini D., Mariotti S.P. Global estimates of visual impairment: 2010. Br. J. Ophthalmol. 2012;96:614–618. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2011-300539. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wilkinson C.P., Ferris F.L., Klein R.E., Lee P.P., Agardh C.D., Davis M., Dils D., Kmapik A., Pararajsegaram R., Verdaguer J.T., et al. Proposed international clinical diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular oedema disease severity scales. Ophthalmology. 2003;110:1677–1682. doi: 10.1016/S0161-6420(03)00475-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study Research Group Grading diabetic retinopathy from stereoscopic color fundus photographs—An extension of the modified Airlie House Classification. ETDRS report number 10. Ophthalmology. 1991;98:786–806. doi: 10.1016/S0161-6420(13)38012-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Simó R., Hernández C., European Consortium for the Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy (EUROCONDOR) Neurodegeneration in the diabetic eye: New insights and therapeutic perspectives. Trends Endocrinol. Metab. 2014;25:23–33. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2013.09.005. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources