Comparison of Quantitative Parameters in Diabetics Without Clinical Signs of Diabetic Retinopathy and Healthy Individuals Using Swept-source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

Automated image analysis is the future for retinal imaging in order to early diagnose retinal diseases like diabetic retinopathy. Swept source coherence tomography angiography offers new insights in retinal vascularization. Data sets for each stage of diabetic retinopathy are crucial to compare findings to the healthy population and to develop further algorithms. We recruited 39 eyes of Type-2 diabetics without diabetic retinopathy comparing them to 43 eyes of age and gender matched individuals using swept source coherence tomography angiography. Vessel and perfusion density in the superficial and deep retinal plexus, as well foveal-avascular zone expansion, using Macular Density V 0.7 algorithm were evaluated. We found no significant change in vessel and perfusion density in both plexus, as well no difference in the foveal-avascular zone between healthy and diabetic eyes without clinical diabetic retinopathy. Current parameters of vascular analysis used in swept- source optical coherence tomography angiography are not valid to detect possible early, subclinical changes in patients with diabetes. However, the presented data set is of high value for future studies, as is represents a complete and clean data set. As automated image analysis is the future in diabetic retinopathy the presented data will be used in future studies.