ICT is associated with less progression of microvascular complications than intensive medical therapy. Multicenter, randomized trials are needed to further study the role of ICT in slowing the progression of diabetic complications.

Islet transplantation yields improved HbA1c and less progression of retinopathy compared with intensive medical therapy during 3 years follow-up.

No abstract

Progression of diabetic retinopathy was more likely to occur during medical therapy than after islet cell transplantation.

SUMMARY Plaques of hard exudate measuring 0-5 to 10 disc diameters, which occurred in 5 eyes of 4 patients with diabetic maculopathy, showed complete organisation in 8 to 18 months with the formation of scars measuring 0-2 to 0 5 disc diameters. Spontaneous progression and regression of hard exudate in diabetic maculopathy was described by King et al.1 and Dobree,2 who found that plaque formation required years for resolution and was not followed by visual recovery. In a previous report3 we described the pathology of an organised macular plaque in exudative diabetic maculopathy and observed that the fibrous replacement was partly retinovascular and partly pigment epithelial in origin, suggesting that it was a specific pathological entity. The present study reports the resolution of mnacular plaques accompanied by organisation in 5 eyes of 4 patients with diabetic maculopathy. This late clinical appearance, which is fully described for the first time, may be the only ophthalmoscopic evidence that a severe exudative maculopathy has been primarily responsible for severe visual loss, and should be differentiated from disciform macular degeneration in older patients.