The Predictive Value of Patient and Eye Characteristics on the Course of Subclinical Diabetic Macular Edema

Progression from subclinical DME to clinically significant DME may be detected by serial clinical and OCT assessment. Subclinical DME does not inexorably progress over time scales of one to two years, and a substantial fraction of eyes spontaneously improve. Follow-up intervals of four to six months allowed detection of progression to clinically significant DME. In this sample of patients, OCT did not help in predicting which eyes with subclinical DME would progress to clinically significant DME.