Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography findings of tractional retinal elevation in patients with diabetic retinopathy.

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical and morphological characteristics as well as the surgical outcomes of tractional retinal elevation (TRE) in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) by analyzing spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).
Methods: SD-OCT images of 26 eyes (24 patients) who visited our clinic because of TRE and PDR from August 2011 to August 2014 were reviewed. According to the presence or absence of tractional retinal detachment (TRD), patients were classified into group 1 (without TRD) or group 2 (with TRD), and the clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes of the two groups were compared. Furthermore, we categorized the SD-OCT morphological components into sponge, cystoid, saw tooth, bridging columnar, and TRD and compared the characteristics among patients who had different components.
Results: Group 1 had 18 eyes and group 2 had eight eyes. No differences in age, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), or spherical equivalent were observed between the two groups, but group 2 had longer axial length than that of group 1 (p = 0.02). A large variety of combined OCT findings was found in group 1 compared to that in group 2. TRD was the least combined form with the other morphological components. Although 92 % of eyes with the bridging columnar component had the cystoid component, TRD and tractional retinoschisis (TRS, bridging columnar morphology) were combined in only one eye.
Conclusion: Diabetic TRE may progress to TRD or TRS, which are mutually exclusive. They may progress to TRD in eyes with a long axial length, and cystoid macular edema seems to develop into TRS.