The Multifocal ERG in Early Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy

To assess retinal changes in diabetic eyes at early stage of retinopathy, retinal responses were examined using multifocal ERG. Seven healthy subjects, 16 diabetics with no apparent retinopathy (NDR) and 9 diabetics who had background diabetic retinopathy (BDR) underwent multifocal ERG testing. The first slice of the second order kernel (K21) were extracted from multifocal ERG record and summed. Three major peaks (P1, N1 and P2) on the trace of summed K21 are evaluated across all subjects. With their amplitude and implicit time as 6 features, linear classifiers were built. These classifiers were used to discriminate eyes of control, NDR and BDR subjects. The classification error dropped significantly