Relationship between mean macular thickness and visual acuity in diabetic patients

Objective the aim of the study was to correlate the relationship between optical coherence tomography (oct) changes and visual acuity in patients with diabetic retinopathy (dr) compared with nondiabetic healthy persons. patients and methods this study was done at alforsan eye research center, assiut, egypt. oct was done at the center in the period from january 2018 to october 2018. this study was performed on 142 eyes of 71 adults who were divided into two groups. the first group was the diabetic group that included 102 eyes of 51 patients, whereas the second group was the nondiabetic group that included 40 eyes of 20 control. results in this study, the mean macular thickness in normal individuals was (224.61 ± 8.8 µm). the authors found that the mean macular thickness of the diabetic patients included in this study was (327.9 ± 11.2 µm), which represents a statistically significant increase in thickness compared with the control (p < 0.001). central macular thickness (cmt) measured by oct was significantly correlated with best corrected visual acuity (r=−0.375 which represents a moderate significant negative correlation). conclusion this study indicated that the cmt in oct has a negative moderate correlation with visual acuity, which means that patients with decreased macular thickness have better visual acuity. the authors also reported a positive mild correlation between age in years and cmt, which means that increase in the age of patients was associated with an increase in cmt.