[The foveal avascular zone in nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy]

The areas of the foveolar avascular zone (FAZ) were measured in the fluorescein angiograms and the comparison was made between 44 eyes of 22 diabetics with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and 32 eyes of the healthy nondiabetic controls. It was found that the area of the FAZ in diabetics ranged between a mean of 0.26 +/- 0.07 mm2 and in healthy nondiabetic controls 0.23 +/- 0.04 mm2 and it was statistically significant difference (p less than 0.05). The results obtained have shown that the area of the FAZ in diabetics with nonproliferative retinopathy is significantly larger than in healthy eyes due to the destruction of the parafoveal capillary net, although the area of the FAZ in healthy eyes could considerably vary. The importance of fluorescein angiography in measuring dimensions and shapes of the FAZ before treatment of diabetic maculopathy is pointed out.