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Maternal diabetes may impact on development of the retina in offspring

An Australian study has reported the first systematic results of an analysis examining the retina of children whose mothers had diabetes at the time of pregnancy. The research has shown that children from diabetic pregnancies had significantly thinner inner and outer macular thickness and macular volume when compared with children from non-diabetic pregnancies. While the observed thinning was between 5-10um and unlikely to be clinically significant the authors suggest that the finding may have implications for the patho-physiology of diabetic retinopathy (DR) or diabetic macular edema (DME) and potentially relevant to the development of the neurological system in the foetus.