OCT is not useful for detection of minimal diabetic retinopathy in type 1 diabetes

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been proven useful in measuring retinal thickness (RT) in patients with diabetes, although with discordant results in different studies. We examined RT in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) with or without minimal diabetic retinopathy (MDR) to test whether OCT is able to identify early retinal changes and potential correlations with metabolic parameters. RT of 102 patients with T1D (53 females, 49 males, aged 27.03 ± 7.4 years) and of 42 healthy controls was examined, with analysis of nine different sectors (fovea, four pericentral and four peripheral sectors). According to the results of basal fundus photography, patients were divided into two groups, without MDR (48 cases) and with MDR (54 cases). Patients with proliferative DR or macular edema were excluded. No difference was found between patients with or without MDR and the control group for all OCT parameters investigated. Mean HbA1c of the last 5 years ( P