Clinical significance of white dots in the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy severity.

<p>(A) The number of white dots (box plot) in individual grades of the international severity scale of diabetic retinopathy. *, <i>P</i><0.001 vs. no apparent retinopathy. (B) The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for diabetic retinopathy (DR) diagnosis of the total number of white dots or red spots discriminating 125 eyes of diabetic patients from 25 nondiabetic control subjects. The ROC curve for DR severity diagnoses (mild nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy [NPDR] or more severe [C], moderate NPDR or more severe [D], severe NPDR or more severe [E], and proliferative diabetic retinopathy [PDR] [F]) of the total number of white dots or red spots in 125 eyes of diabetic patients. AROC = the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. black line = ROC curve of white dots; gray line = ROC curve of red spots.