J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2000 Jun;41(6):1396-1406.

Influence of Diabetes Mellitus on the Retinal Ne rve Fiber Layer Thickness Measurement by Nerve Fiber Analyzer

• Lee SY
• Choi KR

Abstract

To evaluate the influence of diabetes mellitus (DM)on the retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, we compared the retinal nerve fiber layer thickness among four groups using Nerve Fiber Analyzer (LDT, Inc., U.S.A.).Each group of 101 patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG)and of 91 patients without glaucoma (nonglaucomatous group)was divided into two subgroups according to the presence of DM.Fifty three nonglaucomatous eyes without DM (normal group), 38 nonglaucomatous eyes with DM, 67 OAG eyes without DM, and 34 OAG eyes with DM were included. Among 4 groups, inferior averages were the thickest, followed by the superior, nasal and temporal averages.Compared with the group with OAG without DM, only the superior average was significantly thicker in normal group (p<0.05, Student t-test).In nonglaucomatous group, the presence of diabetes caused statistically significant decrease in superior average and nasal average (p<0.05).In the group with OAG, the presence of diabetes caused statistically significant decrease in nasal average (p<0.05). In this study, we tried to measure the diabetic changes of the retinal nerve fiber layer thickness quantitatively using the scanning laser polarimetry (Nerve Fiber Analyzer), and we found that the diabetic changes in the retinal nerve fiber layer were somewhat different from those reported for glaucomatous retinal nerve fiber layer defect.

Keyword

Diabetes mellitus; Nerve Fiber Analyzer; Open-angle glaucoma; Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness

MeSH Terms

Diabetes Mellitus*
Glaucoma
Glaucoma, Open-Angle
Humans
Nerve Fibers*
Retinaldehyde*
Scanning Laser Polarimetry
Retinaldehyde