Kupis, M.; Wawrzyniak, Z.M.; Szaflik, J.P.; Zaleska-Żmijewska, A. Retinal Photoreceptors and Microvascular Changes in the Assessment of Diabetic Retinopathy Progression: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study. Diagnostics2023, 13, 2513.
Kupis, M.; Wawrzyniak, Z.M.; Szaflik, J.P.; Zaleska-Żmijewska, A. Retinal Photoreceptors and Microvascular Changes in the Assessment of Diabetic Retinopathy Progression: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study. Diagnostics 2023, 13, 2513.
Kupis, M.; Wawrzyniak, Z.M.; Szaflik, J.P.; Zaleska-Żmijewska, A. Retinal Photoreceptors and Microvascular Changes in the Assessment of Diabetic Retinopathy Progression: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study. Diagnostics2023, 13, 2513.
Kupis, M.; Wawrzyniak, Z.M.; Szaflik, J.P.; Zaleska-Żmijewska, A. Retinal Photoreceptors and Microvascular Changes in the Assessment of Diabetic Retinopathy Progression: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study. Diagnostics 2023, 13, 2513.
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, France) is a microscope 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 fol-low-up appointments: one and two years after the study, beginning with rtx1 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 have shown decreased photoreceptor and microvascular parameters in the DR group compared to the control group. Furthermore, in the 2-year follow-up, both groups' rtx1-acquired morphological changes were statistically significant.
Conclusions: Rtx-1 technology was successfully used as a non-invasive method of photoreceptors and retinal vasculature assessment over time in patients with diabetic retinopathy. The study has revealed a trend toward more vascular morphological changes occurring over time in diabetic patients.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
