Parafoveal telangiectasis and diabetic retinopathy

Abstract

Five patients with mild nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy had visual loss associated with parafoveal telangiectasis. Minimal macular edema with characteristic parafoveal plaques of subretinal pigment epithelial hyperplasia was seen in all patients. Fluorescein angiography revealed the presence of ectatic, dilated, leaking perifoveal capillaries. The occurrence of parafoveal telangiectasis in patients with diabetic retinopathy has, to our knowledge, not been previously described. One previous clinicopathologic report described the histologic appearance of parafoveal telangiectasis in a nondiabetic patient to be similar to that seen in diabetic patients. The association of parafoveal telangiectasis and diabetic retinopathy raises interesting speculations into the pathogenesis of the entity of parafoveal telangiectasis. In addition, the importance of obtaining fluorescein angiography prior to therapy of diabetic macular edema is emphasized.