Reproducibility of Fixed-luminance and Multi-luminance Flicker Electroretinography in Patients With Diabetic Retinopathy Using an Office-based Testing Paradigm. (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wroblewski, John J.; McChancy, Christa; Pickel, Kassandra; Buterbaugh, Hunter; Wieland, Tyler; Gonzalez, Alberto
• Is Part Of: Journal of diabetes science and technology. Volume 14:Number 6(2020:Nov.)
• Page Start: 1095
• Page End: 1103
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: diabetic retinopathy -- diagnostic testing -- flicker electroretinography retinal dysfunction -- ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography; Diabetes -- Periodicals; Medical technology -- Periodicals; Diabetes Mellitus -- Periodicals; 616.462005
• DOI: 10.1177/1932296819882719
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1932-2968

Abstract

Background: We evaluated the reproducibility of office-based flicker electroretinography (ERG) in patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR). Methods: An observational study was conducted in which ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography (UWF-FA) was performed on 20 patients with mild-to-moderate NPDR; images were graded by the Fundus Photography Reading Center (Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA). Fixed- and multi-luminance flicker ERG was repeated four times (greater than or equal to seven days apart). Recording consistency was assessed using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs), coefficients of variation, and Pearson correlations. Results: 82.5% and 17.5% of eyes had mild and moderate NPDR using UWF-FA; 90% of the angiograms were given a high confidence grade. Fixed-luminance phase values were highly reproducible (ICC: 0.949; P < .001). There was a significant negative correlation between fixed-luminance phase and log-corrected ischemic index values (−0.426; P = .015). Conclusions: Office-based, fixed-luminance phase values are highly reproducible and negatively correlate with retinal ischemia in NPDR, suggesting that global retinal dysfunction may be reliably quantified early in patients with diabetes.