Study finds DRIL is unfavorable prognostic indicator in diabetic retinopathy

A recent cross-sectional study demonstrated that disorganization of retinal inner layers (DRIL) was strongly associated with diabetic retinopathy (DR) severity and worse visual acuity (VA), supporting its utility as an unfavorable prognostic indicator.

DRIL is a potential spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) imaging biomarker with clinical utility in DR. The study, which was conducted at a large academic center, included 1,175 participants (n = 2,083 eyes) with type 2 diabetes with and without retinopathy on initial examination between September 2009 and January 2019. DR risk and progression factors were obtained from the medical record. Trained graders masked to patients’ clinical histories evaluated SD-OCT scans for DRIL.

Of 2,083 eyes, 28.1% (n = 585) indicated DRIL presence with high interrater reliability and DRIL was associated with worse VA and DR severity. Insulin users had more severe DR. In addition, DR-related factors, race (Black, White) and sex (male) were significantly associated with DRIL.

Reference:
Singuri S, Luo S, Hatipoglu D, et al. Clinical utility of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography marker disorganization of retinal inner layers in diabetic retinopathy. Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2023;54(12):692-700. doi:10.3928/23258160