Changes in subfoveal choroidal thickness in diabetic macular edema

Purpose: The objective of this study is to detect the changes in subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) in eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME) with the use of enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT). Patients and Methods: One hundred and eighty eyes were included in this prospective nonrandomized study. They were divided into three groups, each including sixty eyes; Group I with patients with DME, Group II included diabetic patients without maculopathy, and Group III were normal persons. All eyes were examined with fluorescein angiography to detect the retinopathy stage, and all eyes were examined by EDI spectral domain-OCT to measure the thickness of the choroid. Central macular thickness (CMT) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were measured in all groups to find the correlation between them and SFCT. Results: The SFCT was significantly decreased in DME group (215.12 ± 5.6 μm) compared with the other two groups (in Group II, it was 253.1 ± 9.3 μm and in Group III, it was 255.93 ± 9.2 μm) (P < 0.001). A negative correlation (r = −0.6) was detected between CMT and SFCT in patients with DME while no correlation between them was found in other two groups (in Group II, r = 0.17 and Group III, r = 0.2). A significant correlation (r = 0.5) was observed between BCVA and SFCT in Group I, while in other two groups, no correlation between the two measures was detected (in Group II, r = −0.1 and Group III, r = −0.1). Conclusion: In eyes with DME, there is a choroidal thinning on EDI OCT. There is a negative correlation between SFCT and CMT in eyes with DME.