Early changes to retinal structure in patients with diabetic retinopathy as determined by ultrawide swept-source optical coherence tomography-angiography

Purpose: To investigate retinal vascular changes in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) using the newly developed ultrawide rapid scanning swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) device.

Methods: This cross-sectional, observational study enrolled 24 patients (47 eyes) with DR, 45 patients (87 eyes) with diabetes mellitus (DM) without DR, and 36 control subjects (71 eyes). All subjects underwent 24 × 20 mm SS-OCTA examination. Vascular density (VD) and the thickness of the central macula (CM; 1 mm diameter) and temporal fan-shaped areas of 1–3 mm (T3), 3–6 mm (T6), 6–11 mm (T11), 11–16 mm (T16), and 16–21 mm (T21) were compared among groups. The VD and the thicknesses of the superficial vascular complex (SVC) and deep vascular complex (DVC) were analyzed separately. The predictive values of VD and thickness changes in DM and DR patients were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Results: The average VDs of the SVC in the CM and the T3, T6, T11, T16, and T21 areas were significantly lower in the DR than in the control group, whereas only the average VD of the SVC in the T21 area was significantly lower in the DM group. The average VD of the DVC in the CM was significantly increased in the DR group, whereas the average VDs of the DVC in the CM and T21 area were significantly decreased in the DM group. Evaluation of the DR group showed significant increases in the thicknesses of SVC-nourishing segments in the CM and T3, T6, and T11 areas and significant increases in the thicknesses of DVC-nourishing segments in the CM and T3 and T6 areas. In contrast, none of these parameters showed significant changes in the DM group. ROC curve analysis showed that the average VD of the SVC in the CM, T3, and T21 had better ability to predict DR, with areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) of 0.8608, 0.8505, and 0.8353, respectively. The average VD of the DVC in the CM was also predictive of DR, with an AUC of 0.8407.

Conclusions: The newly developed ultrawide SS-OCTA device was better able to reveal early peripheral retinal vascular changes than traditional devices.