The Study of Retinal Thickness in Diabetes Patients in Thai Population at Samut Prakan Hospital, Samut Prakan Province

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study the retinal thickness in good glycemic control (HbA1c < 7%, n = 122) and poor glycemic control (HbA1c ≥ 7%, n = 122) diabetic patients compared with healthy people in the Thai population (HbA1c < 5.7%, n = 122). The retinal thickness results were collected from the Ophthalmology Department Samut Prakan Hospital, Samut Prakan Province, from the retrospective medical records (from September 2018 - September 2020) with Thai ethnicity and without retinal disease, aged 41-80 years old, both males and females, 366 people. Retinal thickness analysis was performed using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in 9 parameters: Fovea, T Inner, S Inner, N Inner, Inf Inner, T Outer, S Outer, N Outer and Inf Outer. The results showed that the retinal thickness decreases with increasing age and there is a difference between males and females. In the healthy group and the group with good diabetes control, between the ages of 41-50 and 51-60 years, males have an average retinal thickness of 3.34% more than that in females. Normal males have an average retinal thickness of 274.66 ± 23.89 μm, females average 263 ± 21.59 μm. When compare the retinal thickness between the healthy group and the groups with good and poor glycemic control, in the age range from 41 to 80 years old, there was a statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level. It was found that the retinal thickness in 5 OCT parameters, Fovea, T Outer, S Outer, N Outer, and Inf Outer, tended to increase with HbA1c levels. When analyzing by age range, the difference was found to be insignificant in some age groups. For the Fovea parameter, in the age range of 61-70 years, it was found that the retinal thickness in diabetes groups had increased thickness compared to that in the healthy group. While the age range of 71-80 years found that the thickness decreased statistically significantly (p-value < 0.05). The results of this study can be used to develop a database in forensic science for assessing the retinal thickness and age range in Thai population, comparing between diabetic and healthy people.