THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MULTIFOCAL ELECTRORETINOGRAPHY IN PREDICTING TREATMENT OUTCOMES FOR DIFFERENT FORMS OF DIABETIC MACULAR EDEMA

Purpose – to predict treatment outcomes in different forms of diabetic macular edema (DME) using multifocal electroretinography (mf-ERG). Material and methods The study included 82 patients divided into two groups: Group I – 41 patients with cystoid macular edema (41 eyes); group II – 41 patients with tractional macular edema (41 eyes). The patients included 49 males (59.8%) and 33 females (40.2%), with a mean age of 58.46 ± 8.11 years (min: 26, max: 77 years). The known duration of diabetes mellitus (DM) was 13.41 ± 7.07 years (min: 0, max: 31 years). All examined patients were confirmed to have various types of DME. Patients with cystoid macular edema were treated with anti-VEGF injections into the vitreous body, while those with tractional macular edema (41 eyes) underwent pars plana vitrectomy (41 patients). All patients underwent mf-ERG before and after treatment. Results Mf-ERG was shown to predict the functional outcomes of DME treatment based on P1 amplitude indicators. In cystoid macular edema, the predictive power of the P1 amplitude indicator in the first ring before treatment for post-treatment visual acuity was 58.0% (regression coefficient -0.021, p<0.001), while in tractional macular edema, the predictive power of the P1 indicator in the first ring before surgery for post-surgical visual acuity was 70.3% (regression coefficient -0.026, p<0.001). Conclusion The results of this study demonstrate that functional indicators obtained from mf-ERG are related to the final visual prognosis and confirm the value of mf-ERG in predicting functional outcomes of DME treatment. Key words: diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, vitreomacular traction, multifocal electroretinography