Comparison Between Central Choroidal Thickness in Pregnant Diabetic Females and Pregnant Non-Diabetic Females

OBJECTIVE: To compare choroidal thickness in pregnant women with and without diabetes mellitus (DM). METHODS: Sixty pregnant females (60 eyes) were enrolled in this cross-sectional controlled study. They were divided into two groups: Group A (30 patients; 30 eyes) were pregestational diabetic pregnant females, while Group B (30 patients; 30 eyes) were non-diabetic pregnant females. Exclusion criteria were high-risk pregnancy, diabetic retinopathy in Group A subjects, systemic or ophthalmological pathology, drug intake other than vitamin supplements and diabetic medications, and large errors of refraction. All patients underwent full ophthalmological examination and enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT) to measure the choroidal thickness in the nine zones of the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) map. RESULTS: Our results show that Group A eyes (of pregnant diabetic females) had a highly significant greater choroidal thickness than Group B eyes (of pregnant non-diabetic females) in all nine zones of the ETDRS map (p-value <0.01). Moreover, we found a positive linear correlation between the duration of DM and the degree of choroidal thickening. CONCLUSION: Pregnant diabetic females have a thicker choroid than that of pregnant non-diabetic females.