Lei CY, Xie JY, Ran QB, Zhang MX. Non-linear relationship between age and subfoveal choroidal thickness in Chinese patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. World J Diabetes 2024; 15(9): 1903-1915 [PMID: 39280183 DOI: 10.4239/wjd.v15.i9.1903]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Mei-Xia Zhang, MD, Chief Physician, Full Professor, Surgeon, Department of Ophthalmology and Research Laboratory of Macular Disease, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Lane, Wuhou District, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. zhangmeixia@scu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Ophthalmology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Chun-Yan Lei, Qi-Bo Ran, Mei-Xia Zhang, Department of Ophthalmology and Research Laboratory of Macular Disease, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Jiang-Ying Xie, Sichuan University Operating Room, Department of Anesthesiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University/West China School of Nursing, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Co-first authors: Chun-Yan Lei and Jiang-Ying Xie.
Author contributions: Lei CY and Zhang MX designed the research study; Lei CY and Xie JY performed the research; Ran QB contributed analytic tools; Lei CY and Xie JY analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported bythe 1.3.5 Project for Disciplines of Excellence, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. ZYJC21025.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Ethical Committee of the West China Hospital of Sichuan University [Approval No. 2020(834)].
Informed consent statement: The data were anonymous and informed consent was waived by the approving Institutional Review Board because of the retrospective nature of the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: Data will be made available on reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mei-Xia Zhang, MD, Chief Physician, Full Professor, Surgeon, Department of Ophthalmology and Research Laboratory of Macular Disease, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Lane, Wuhou District, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. zhangmeixia@scu.edu.cn
Received: May 7, 2024 Revised: June 11, 2024 Accepted: July 16, 2024 Published online: September 15, 2024 Processing time: 112 Days and 3.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
No study has investigated the change regularity between age and subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) in proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).
AIM
To investigate the relationship between the SFCT and age in Chinese patients with PDR.
METHODS
This was a cross-sectional retrospective study. The participants were hospitalized individuals with type 2 diabetes who underwent vitrectomy for PDR. Con-tralateral eyes that met the criteria were included in the study. All necessary laboratory tests were performed at the time of admission. Central macular thickness (CMT) and SFCT were two quantitative assessments made using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography. CMT was measured automatically and SFCT was measured manually with digital calipers provided by the Heidelberg Eye Explorer software.
RESULTS
The final analysis included a total of 234 individuals with PDR. The average age was 55.60 years old ± 10.03 years old, and 57.69% of the population was male. Univariate analysis revealed a significant negative connection between age and SFCT in patients with PDR [β = -2.44, 95% confidence interval (95%CI): -3.46 to -1.42; P < 0.0001]. In the fully adjusted model, the correlation between SFCT and age remained steady (β = -1.68, 95%CI: -2.97 to -0.39; P = 0.0117). Spline smoothing showed that the relationship between SFCT and age in patients with PDR was non-linear, with an inflection point at 54 years of age.
CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that age is a key determinant of choroidal thickness. The non-linear link between SFCT and age in PDR patients should be taken into account.
Core Tip: In the present study, the average subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) of patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) was inversely correlated with age, and a reduction of 1.68 μm in SFCT per year was observed. Additionally, there was a progressively increasing trend in SFCT of 2.00 μm per year before the age of 54 years and a negative correlation of 4.89 μm per year after the age of 54 years; therefore, age around 54 years might be an important turning point. This is the first study to reveal a relationship between age and SFCT in patients with PDR.
