The evaluation of nailfold videocapillaroscopy findings in patients with type 2 diabetes with and without diabetic retinopathy

• Published in: Northern clinics of Istanbul Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 146 - 150
• Main Authors: Bakirci, Sibel, Celik, Erkan, Acikgoz, Seyyid Bilal, Erturk, Zeynep, Tocoglu, Aysel Gurkan, Imga, Narin Nasiroglu, Kaya, Muhammed, Tamer, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Turkey Kare Publishing 01-01-2019; KARE Publishing
• Subjects: diabetes mellitus; diabetic retinopathy; microvascular changes; nailfold videocapillaroscopy; Original; microvascular changes; nailfold videocapillaroscopy; Diabetic retinopathy; diabetes mellitus
• ISSN: 2536-4553; 2148-4902
• DOI: 10.14744/nci.2018.02222

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic hyperglycemic state and is associated with microvascular structural alterations. This study aimed to investigate the diameters of capillary loops and morphostructural changes using nailfold video capillaroscopy (NVC) in patients with type 2 DM with and without diabetic retinopathy (DR).
This cross-sectional, single-center study was conducted in patients with type 2 DM who were followed in outpatient clinics of ophthalmology and internal medicine. General demographic data were collected from patients. An ophthalmologist examined all patients in terms of DR. A rheumatologist blinded to the clinical data performed NVC. The diameters of apical, arterial, and venous loop of capillaries were measured, and the microvascular changes of capillaries were scored.
In this study, 44 patients with type 2 DM with DR (47.7% males) and 20 patients with type 2 DM without DR (55% males) were included. In our study, patients with type 2 DM with DR had more frequent capillary hemorrhage, more frequent ectasia, more frequent giant capillary, and more frequent neo-angiogenesis than patients with type 2 DM without DR. However, these findings were not statistically significant.
Further controlled studies with large sample size are needed to determine the characteristic NVC findings of DR in patients with type 2 DM.