Materials and Methods: The patients with diffuse DME who were treated with intravitreal ranibizumab injection were enrolled. The demographic characteristics, diabetes duration, antidiabetic medication, hemoglobin A1c, previous treatment for DME were recorded. Diabetic retinopathy stage was evaluated on fluorescein angiography. Follow-up time and number of injections were noted. The effectiveness of the treatment was studied by comparing the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central macular thickness (CMT) measured before and after the injections. The association between aforementioned factors and the change in BCVA and CMT was investigated.

Results: In the study 65 eyes of 41 patients were studied. The mean follow-up time was 9.38±3 (6-18) months, the mean number of injections was 3.7±1.04 (1-6). The mean logMAR BCVA before and after the injections was 0.88±0.38 (0.1-1.8) and 0.62±0.4 (0-1.8) respectively. The mean CMT before and after the injections was 391.63±84.67 (254-733) μm and 291.89±113.65 (130-695) μm respectively. The difference in BCVA and CMT were statistically significant. There was no statistically significant correlation between the demographic, systemic, ocular factors and the difference in BCVA and CMT.

Conclusion: Intravitreal injection of ranibizumab in DME is an effective treatment that provides increase in BCVA and decrease in CMT. Studies with larger number of patients and longer follow-up time is required to evaluate long term effectiveness of the treatment and factors that might affect prognosis. Keywords : Diabetic macular edema, ranibizumab, visual acuity, central macular thickness