Influence of Peripapillary Atrophy on the Progress of Diabetic Retinopathy

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the influence of peripapillary atrophy on the progress of diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: Interval between the diagnosis of diabetes and the onset of diabetic retinopathy was compared between 77 eyes of 50 patients with peripapillary atrophy and 253 eyes of 172 patients without peripapillary atrophy who visited the Korea university ophthalmology department between January 2002 and May 2002, No one had glaucoma or high myopia. Pepipapillary atrophy was classified by severity and compared. RESULTS: Time to the onset of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy was longer in the patients with peripapillary atrophy (13.7 years) than the patients without peripapillary atrophy (11.2 years) (ptime to proliferative diabetic retinopathy was also longer in eyes with peripapillary atrophy(21.1 years) than those without peripapillary atrophy (12.3 years) (pCONCLUSIONS: The onset and progression of nonproliferative or proliferative diabetic retinopathy was delayed in the patients with peripapillary atrophy irrelevant to glaucoma, high myopia or tessellated fundus. The mild peripapillary atrophy had the same effect. But the extent of peripapillary atrophy had no relation with the progression of diabetic retinopathy.