Faculty Bibliography

We obtained electroretinograms (ERGs) from normal subjects and from patients with sickle cell disease. The ERG components (a-wave, b-wave, and oscillatory potentials) obtained from normal subjects and patients without peripheral retinal neovascularization did not differ in either amplitude or implicit time. However, ERG components obtained from patients with peripheral retinal neovascularization were reduced in amplitude compared with those obtained from normal subjects or patients without neovascularization. The reduced a-wave, b-wave, and oscillatory potential amplitudes may have been due to photoreceptor dysfunction secondary to choroidal ischemia or possibly increased oxygen demands by the inner retina. Ischemia of the inner retina may also have contributed to the altered b-wave and oscillatory potentials. These results suggest that ERG provides a means of assessing the consequence of peripheral retinal ischemia to retinal cell function and could be of value in monitoring patients with sickle cell disease for the development of clinically significant peripheral retinal neovascularization.

In a cross-sectional study, 34 diabetic patients with clinically significant macular edema underwent visual acuity testing, stereo fundus photography (graded for retinal thickening and hard exudates), fluorescein angiography (evaluated for macular leakage and the outline of the foveal avascular zone [FAZ]), and vitreous fluorophotometry (whereby posterior penetration ratios were calculated). This last ratio provided the highest single correlation with visual acuity; next highest were patient age and FAZ grading. Multivariate regression confirmed that these three variables together best predicted visual acuity. Lesser correlations with acuity were obtained with angiographic leakage and fundus photography grading. Cross-correlations among all gradings showed that indicators of breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier, ie, fluorophotometry, angiographic leakage, and retinal thickening, were significantly correlated with each other, whereas FAZ grading was independent of all these factors and correlated only with acuity. By performing vitreous fluorophotometry and fluorescein angiography, it is possible to quantitate two major components of diabetic maculopathy: breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier and macular ischemia, both of which are highly correlated with visual acuity

Chorioretinal lesions produced by dye laser photocoagulation were examined on normal monkey retinas, using angiographic and histopathologic techniques. Retinal burns produced by green (514 nm), yellow (577 nm), orange (600 nm), and red (630 nm) laser lights were placed in the posterior pole between the fovea and the major vascular arcades. When examined histopathologically 24 hours after treatment, greater damage to the inner retina and deep choroid was noted with the red laser light than with the green, yellow and orange laser lights. These differences were not detectable 31 days after treatment. There were no appreciable acute differences among the lesions caused by green, yellow and orange irradiation. Laser light at four wavelengths of the orange spectrum (590, 595, 600, and 605 nm) produced comparable chorioretinal destruction in the juxtafoveal zone when examined 24 hours and 31 days after treatment. Retinal arterioles and venules treated with yellow (577 nm) and orange (600 nm) laser light demonstrated endothelial and pericytic cell damage. Changes in the outer retina, pigment epithelium, and choriocapillaris were also present beneath the photocoagulated vessels.