Functional and anatomical changes in diabetic macular edema after hemodialysis initiation: One-year follow-up multicenter study

Diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy (DR) including diabetic macular edema (DME) are representative microvascular complications of diabetes. We conducted a retrospective multicenter study analyzing records from patients with DR (132 eyes in 70 patients) and end-stage renal diseases (ESRD) who underwent hemodialysis for the first time. We demonstrated that the central retinal thickness (CRT) values were significantly decreased (p < 0.0001), and the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) values were improved (p < 0.05) at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after hemodialysis initiation, in spite of a lack of specific ocular treatments for DME in 93.2% of eyes. We found a significant positive correlation in the rates of CRT changes between right and left eyes. The CRT reductions were greater in eyes with DME type subretinal detachment than in those with spongelike swelling and cystoid macular edema. The visual outcome gain was associated with the CRT reduction at 12 months in the eyes with good initial BCVA (≧20/50). Hemodialysis induction contributed to functional and anatomical improvements after 1 year, independently of initial laboratory values before the hemodialysis.