[Morphometric study of the choroid in pregnant women with disorders of carbohydrate metabolism].

Unlabelled: In recent years, much attention is being paid to studying the state of the choroid in various eye pathologies, but changes in the choroid of pregnant women with disorders of glucose metabolism remain unexplored.

Purpose: To study choroidal thickness in pregnant women with disorders of carbohydrate metabolism in the III trimester.

Material And Methods: The study included 376 pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy: 49 of them had type 1 diabetes (T1D), 248 had gestational diabetes (GD), and 79 were healthy pregnant women who comprised the control group. Three subgroups were distinguished among patients with GD, depending on the timing of the development of GD in the I (160 patients), II (56 patients), or III (32 patients) trimesters. Optical coherence tomography was performed to measure choroidal thickness in the foveal region.

Results: In patients with GD, no significant differences in average indexes of choroidal thickness in subgroups with different timing of diabetes development were observed, however, the pregnant women of the GD subgroup with beginning of its development in the first trimester had the smallest indexes of average choroidal thickness. In pregnant women with GD who received insulin, choroidal thickness was lower than in patients who did not receive it, although statistical significance of that was not established. In patients with T1D and diabetic retinopathy (DR), choroidal thickness was significantly lower compared to patients with T1D without DR, GD and control groups. Obtained data indicates the presence of changes in the choroid and development of diabetic choroidopathy in pregnant women with T1D and DR.

Conclusion: The study of choroidal changes in pregnant women with disorders of carbohydrate metabolism can help identify criteria for manifestation of diabetic microangiopathy, choroidopathy, and predict the progression of DR.