ESPE Abstracts

Aim: The study aimed to assess the development of early diabetic retinopathy (DR), one of the microvascular complications, in patients with isolated type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) (group 1), type 1 DM with a diagnosis of autoimmune thyroiditis (AT) (group 2), and healthy controls (group 3), which were matched for age, sex, number, and body mass index for comparison.

Methods: In this prospective and observational study, group 1 (aged 10–20 years with type 1 DM) and group 2 were followed up for at least 5 years and developed no clinical DR yet. Healthy volunteers were also included. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) was used to evaluate the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and parafoveal vascular density (PVD) for the development of early DR among the groups. Patients’ OCTA findings were compared with those of healthy volunteers. Obtained data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 25.0.

Results: The average FAZ and PVD showed a significant difference among the three groups (P= 0.016, P= 0.006). The mean FAZ was higher in groups 1 and 2 than in group 3 (P= 0.013, P= 0.119). The mean PVD was lower in groups 1 and 2 than in group 3 (P= 0.059, P= 0.007). No significant difference was found between group 1 and group 2 in terms of the mean FAZ and PVD (P= 0.832, P= 0.653). A significant correlation was found between the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level and FAZ and PVD (FAZ; r= 0.57 p < 0.001, PVD; r= −0.29 P= 0.005).

Conclusion: In patients with type 1 DM who did not develop clinical DR, OCTA detected an increase in FAZ, which was associated with HbA1c levels. The mean PVD was significantly lower in the group with coexisting AT and type 1 DM than in the control group. These results suggest that coexistence of autoimmune thyroiditis and type 1 DM may contribute to the development of microvascular complications. Thus, studies with larger patient series are required. This study is underreview process in Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology.