Structural choroidaid changes in diabetic retinopathy

Blindness and low vision, as a social medical problem, occupy one of the leading places in both healthcare and the state economy. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a vision-threatening microvascular disease, the most common diabetes complication that affects the retina, causing blindness among working-age adults in developed countries. Difficulties in determining the starting, key pathogenetic links and early diagnosis of this disease do not allow to accurately determine the initial moment of occurrence, and known treatment methods are aimed, as a rule, at slowing down the pathological process. Purpose. Analysis of literature data on the clinical and diagnostic features of diabetic retinopathy. Material and methods. To analyze the literature, information was searched on this problem up to 10 years deep in PubMed / MEDLINE, PMC, Web of Since. For the search, the following terms were used individually or in combination: "diabetes mellitus", "diabetic retinopathy", "diabetic vasculopathy", "optical coherence tomography", "fluorescence angiography", "complications". The search criteria were key studies related to diabetic retinopathy, vasculopathy: meta-analyzes, original studies, retrospective and cohort studies. Results and discussions. Oxygen from the capillary layer of the choroid through the Bruch membrane and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) gets to the outer retinal layers. Due to complications in the bloodstream, nutrition is impaired which leads to diabetic retinal changes. It is advisable and necessary to study changes in the structures of the choroid in large samples using angio-OCT, since changes in the choroid can be the primary prognostic markers of the development of diabetes in the absence of clinical manifestations of diabetic retinopathy. Conclusion. Changes in the structure of the choroid can become a marker for predicting the development of DR in patients with type 2 diabetes, more accurately and quickly establish a diagnosis in the early stages of the disease, and prescribe appropriate therapy in a timely manner. As a result, patients receive timely care and treatment costs will decrease. Keywords: diabetes mellitus, diabetic retinopathy, choroid, diabetic choriopathy, OCT angiography, choroid structures.