Evaluation of oxidative, antioxidative status and inflammatory cytokines in patients with detected hyperreflective dots in diabetic retinopathy

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the levels of serum antioxidative markers and inflammatory cytokines in patients with diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema (DME) whose hyperreflective spots were detected by optical coherence tomography. Materials and Methods: Thirty-one patients (group-1) with diagnosed non-treated DME and hyperreflective spots (HRN), 29 patients (group-2) with diagnosed non-treated DME without any HRN (group-2), twenty-eight patients (group-3) with only diabetes mellitus (no any retinopathy) were included in the study. At the time of diagnosis, the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was recorded, CMT (central macular thickness), CMV (central macular volume), TMV (total macular volume), CT (subfoveal choroid thickness) were determined by optical coherence tomography (OCT), and blood was collected in a biochemistry tube from all patients, after serum was obtained by centrifugation and stored at -80 ° C. Serum TAS (total antioxidant status), TOS (total oxidant status), VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), FGF (fibroblast growth factor) and IL-1b levels were measured. OCT parameters and biochemical measurements were compared statistically between three groups. Results: A total of 88 patients (43 female (48.9%) and 45 male (51.1%)) were included in the study. The mean age was 56.29 ± 9.23 years. 64 of the eyes were phakic and 24 were pseudophakic. There was no difference between the three groups in terms of age and sex. In Group 1 and 2, BCVA was statistically lower than group 3. CMT, CMV, TMV, TAS, TOS, VEGF and FGF were significantly higher in group-1 than in group-3. CMT, CMV, TMV, VEGF and FGF values were significantly higher in Group 2 than Group 3. TOS and VEGF values were significantly higher in group-1 than group-2. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that hyperreflective spots seen on optical coherence tomography may be an inflammatory biomarker, because of oxidative and inflammatory markers are found to be higher in patients with DME and hyperreflective spots.