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Diabetic Retinopathy: Current Understanding and Treatment Strategies

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Dr. Rossella D'Aloisio

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Guest Editor

Ophthalmology Clinic, Department of Medicine and Science of Ageing, University G. D'Annunzio Chieti-Pescara, via dei Vestini 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Interests: ophthalmology; retinal imaging; medical retina; vitreoretinal diseases; ocular surgery
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Dr. Marco Rocco Pastore

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Guest Editor Assistant

Eye Clinic, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
Interests: OCT; clinical ophthalmology; cataract surgery; eye diseases; glaucoma; macular degeneration; retinal diseases; vitreoretinal surgery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Medicina journal, we are delighted to present the first edition of this Special Issue, titled “Diabetic Retinopathy: Current Understanding and Treatment Strategies”.

As the prevalence of diabetes dramatically increases, millions of people are at risk of developing diabetes-related ocular complications such as diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME). DR and DME remain some of the leading causes of visual impairment worldwide, and these are the only types of blindness and visual impairment where prevalence continues to rise. Early detection of DR/DME is key to preventing sight-threatening complications. In the effort to achieve this, diabetic eye-screening programmes either have been or are being established, improving access to early diagnosis of DR/DME and appropriate referral to treatment.

In this Special Issue, our aim is to discuss and share the up-to-date experiences of clinical practices, treatment options, imaging modalities, and basic research into the field of diabetic retinopathy via original research articles, narrative reviews, scoping reviews, and systematic reviews with meta-analyses.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following keywords.

Dr. Rossella D'Aloisio
Guest Editor

Dr. Marco Rocco Pastore
Guest Editor Assistant

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Research

14 pages, 1248 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Efficacy of Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant (Ozurdex^®) in Naïve and Refractory Patients with Different Morphological Subtypes of Diabetic Macular Edema

by Panagiotis Stavrakas, Evita Evangelia Christou, Vasileios Nasikas, Chrysoula Koutsiouki, Athanasios Vakalis, Solon Asteriadis, Georgios D. Panos and Paris Tranos

Medicina 2025, 61(3), 488; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina61030488 - 12 Mar 2025

Viewed by 824

Abstract

Background and Objectives: To investigate anatomical and functional outcomes in different morphological subtypes of diabetic macular edema (DME) treated with an intravitreal dexamethasone implant (Ozurdex) over 6 months follow-up. Materials and Methods: A retrospective, comparative study on patients with DME who received an intravitreal dexamethasone implant. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central subfoveal thickness (CST) and maximum CST on optical coherence tomography (OCT) were measured. The recruits were divided into three groups based on the morphological patterns of DME: serous retinal detachment (SRD), cystic macular edema (CME) and diffuse retinal thickening (DRT). The presence or absence of previous treatment were considered as being previously treated with anti-VEGF (PT) vs. naïve eyes (TN). All subjects received a single injection of the dexamethasone implant. The primary outcomes included changes in BCVA, CST and CSTMax at 2-, 4- and 6-months of follow-up. Results: CST was significantly reduced following one dexamethasone injection in the whole cohort from a total mean value of 513.3 μm to 368.2 μm at 2 months, 447.2 μm at 4 months and 471.5 μm at 6 months. The change in CST was significantly greater in SRD as opposed to the DRT and CME group at all time points. Overall, BCVA improved from 0.82 at baseline to 0.75 and 0.76 LogMAR at 2 and 4 months, respectively, whilst showing an overall deterioration to 0.84 at 6 months. The CME group showed the best BCVA at 6 months. Concerning treatment status (TN vs. PT), there was no significant difference in CST at 2 and 4 months, while CST was reduced at 6 months for the PT group (p = 0.023). Similarly, BCVA was significantly better in the PT group at 6 months (p = 0.017). Conclusions: The dexamethasone implant was effective in reducing DME and providing short-term BCVA improvement. The presence of SRD was associated with more favorable anatomical results, while CME was associated with better visual acuity. Dexamethasone provided superior results in previously treated patients. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diabetic Retinopathy: Current Understanding and Treatment Strategies)

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