Diabetic Retinopathy Research Group Vienna

Location: Department of Ophthalmology, Floor 8i
Phone (appointments): +43 (1) 40400 - 60000

Mission statement

The aim of the DRRG Vienna is to gain further insight into patho-morphological and patho-physiological retinal changes secondary to diabetes mellitus. Actual and novel ophthalmological treatment modalities and their effects on retinal function and morphology are analyzed in prospective clinical trials. Together with our patients, partners of the scientific community and the industry we investigate new diagnostic and therapeutic tools always aiming for improvement and pharmacological and technological progress.
The purpose of these analyses is to improve therapeutic options helping to prevent sight deterioration or visual impairment secondary to diabetes mellitus. Therefore we also participate in multi-center clinical trials evaluating novel therapeutic strategies.

Technical Equipment

OCT angiography, Swept source OCT, spectral domain OCT, polarization-sensitive OCT, adaptive optics OCT, adaptive optics SLO, confocal cornea microscopy, ultra-wide field imaging, fluorescence angiography, pattern laser, micropulse laser

Current clinical trials

PONTIAC 2 Eye-Study (recruiting)
Impact of high dose β-¬‐Blocker and ACE Inhibition on early retinal changes in diabetic patients. In cooperation with the Department of Cardiology, we investigate preclinical changes of the neurosensory retina and the supplying capillary network to find new biomarkers of disease progression.

Ophthalmic neurodegeneration in type II Diabetes (recruiting)
The purpose of this study is to compare the severity and define the correlation between retinal and corneal neurodegeneration in type II diabetic patients according to the presence and stage of diabetic retinopathy.

AQUA Trial (follow up)
Open-label Phase-4 study to examine the change of vision-related quality of life in subjects with diabetic macular edema (DME) during treatment with intravitreal injections of 2 mg aflibercept according to EU label for the first year of treatment

Aflibercept in diabetic macular edema (recruiting)
Thorough investigation of functional and morphologic changes in patients with DME following intravitreal treatment with aflibercept.

Aflibercept in proliferativ diabetic retinopathy (coming soon)
Clinical trial investigating morphologic changes of the retina and its capillary network following intravitreal treatment with aflibercept.

Visual quality in diabetic patients (recruiting)
The visual quality of diabetic subjects is compared to an age-matched cohort reflecting the general population. 

Publications

• Sonja G. Prager MD, Jan Lammer MD, Christoph Mitsch MD, Julia Hafner MD, Berthold Pemp MD, Christoph Scholda MD, Michael Kundi MD, Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth MD, Katharina Kriechbaum MD: Analysis of retinal layer thickness in diabetic macular edema treated with ranibizumab or triamcinolone, Acta opthalmologica 
• Hafner J, Prager S, Lammer J, Kriechbaum K, Scholda C, Pablik E, Schmidt-Erfurth U.; COMPARISON OF GANGLION CELL INNER PLEXIFORM LAYER THICKNESS BY CIRRUS AND SPECTRALIS OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY IN DIABETIC MACULAR EDEMA. Retina. 2017 Apr 3
• Salas M, Augustin M, Ginner L, Kumar A, Baumann B, Leitgeb R, Drexler W, Prager S, Hafner J, Schmidt-Erfurth U, Pircher M.: Visualization of micro-capillaries using optical coherence tomography angiography with and without adaptive optics. Biomed Opt Express. 2016 Dec 12;8(1):207-222.
• Matthias Salas, Wolfgang Drexler, Xavier Levecq, Barbara Lamory, Markus Ritter, Sonja Prager, Julia Hafner, Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth, and Michael Pircher; Multi-modal adaptive optics system including fundus photography and optical coherence tomography for the clinical setting; Biomed. Opt. Express 7(5), 1783-1796 (2016)
• Lammer J, Prager S, Cheney M, Ahmed A, Radwan S, Burns St, Silva P, Sun J; Cone Photoreceptor Irregularity on Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy Correlates with Severity of Diabetic Retinopathy and Macular Edema. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2016 Dec 1;57(15):6624-6632
• Sun JK, Radwan SH, Soliman AZ, Lammer J, Lin MM, Prager SG, Silva PS, Aiello LB, Aiello LP. Neural Retinal Disorganization as a Robust Marker of Visual Acuity in Current and Resolved Diabetic Macular Edema. Diabetes. 2015 Jul;64(7):2560-70.

How to become involved in clinical trials

In case you are interested to participate in one of our clinical trials, we kindly ask you to get a letter of referral from your ophthalmologist addressed to our outpatient clinic at the Department of Ophthalmology, level 8i, General Hospital Vienna. We will be happy to inform you about your benefits and your possible risks of participation in one of our clinical trials.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us: +43 1 40400 60000