Correlation between Optical Coherence Tomography and Multifocal ERG Changes in Diffuse Diabetic Macular Oedema

Purpose: To detect and correlate retinal morphological changes measured with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and functional changes recorded with Multifocal ERG (mf-ERG) in diffuse diabetic macular oedema. Materials and Methods: the study included 33 diabetic patients with diffuse macular oedema as documented by fluorescein angiography (FA). Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was detected for every patient. Central and pericentral macular thickness was measured by OCT. Macular functional changes were recorded with multifocal electroretinogram. Results: 85.7% of our cases with bad BCVA (worse than 0.5) had increased central foveal thickness. 71.4% of our cases with bad BCVA had increased pericentral macular thickness. There is a highly significant negative correlation between BCVA and central and pericentral macular thickness. For mfERG; we found significant changes in patients with bad BCVA and the changes were in the latency rather than amplitude. So, we did not find significant changes in mfERG in patients with good BCVA (better than 0.5). Patients with increased central and pericentral macular thickness had increased P1 latency of ring 3. Conclusion: OCT and mfERG are valuable diagnostic techniques that can help to assess morphological and functional changes in diffuse diabetic macular oedema. [Sherif H. Emerah, Ehab S. El Zakzouk, Onsy A. Badie Correlation between Optical Coherence Tomography and Multifocal ERG Changes in Diffuse Diabetic Macular Oedema]. Journal of American Science 2011; 7(12): 249-253]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.americanscience.org.