Research Article Usefulness of Discarded Vitreous Samples from Routine Vitrectomy Natàlia Vilà, 1,2 Pablo Zoroquiain, 1 Vasco Bravo-Filho, 1 Emilia Antecka, 1 Helena Dietrich, 1 John C. Chen, 2 I. John Galic, 2 Michael A. Kapusta, 2 and Miguel N. Burnier Jr. 1,2 1 RI-MUHC, Henry C. Witelson Ocular Pathology Laboratory, 1001 Boulevard Decarie, Block E, Lab No. E02.2389, Montreal, QC, Canada H4A 3J1 2 Department of Ophthalmology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada Correspondence should be addressed to Nat` alia Vil` a; natalia.vila@mail.mcgill.ca Received 25 January 2016; Accepted 17 March 2016 Academic Editor: Van C. Lansingh Copyright © 2016 Nat` alia Vil` a et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Purpose. To describe the histopathological features of vitreous samples obtained afer vitrectomy surgery from diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Methods. Vitreous specimens from 137 patients who underwent vitrectomy for diferent clinical conditions were analysed. All samples were centrifuged and each resulting pellet was fxed and processed as part of routine parafn section histopathology. Te histopathological features were categorized in a semiquantitative fashion. Te samples from diabetic and nondiabetic patients were compared. Results. Te 125 included patients (58 diabetic, 60% males) were aged 64.2 ± 13.9 years. Te presence of hemorrhage, infammatory cells, and histiocytes was signifcantly higher in the diabetic group ( < 0.001,  = 0.028, and  = 0.016, resp.), showing more vessels ( < 0.001) and ghost vessels ( = 0.049). Te presence of infammatory cells was the feature with the highest sensitivity for detecting diabetes mellitus (98%) and also the highest negative predictive value (89%). In the multivariate analysis, three variables emerged as independent signifcant predictors of diabetes in vitrectomy samples: hemorrhage, endothelial-lined vessels, and age ( < 0.001,  < 0.001, and  = 0.019, resp.). Conclusions. Diferent histopathological features can be found in vitreous samples from diabetic patients. Analysis of vitrectomy samples may serve as a tool for diabetes management. 1. Introduction Afer more than four decades, pars plana vitrectomy has become routine for vitreoretinal surgeons. Vitrectomy can beneft patients with many ocular disorders such as retinal detachment, macular pathology, among other conditions. In addition, vitrectomy can be performed to assess vitreous cytology in order to rule out neoplastic processes in the clinical context of chronic nonspecifc infammation or mas- querade syndrome [1]. When this diferential diagnosis is not required, the material collected from vitrectomy surgery is frequently discarded because, to date, no importance has been attributed to these specimens. Te aim of the present study was to evaluate the histopathological features of vitreous samples in diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder that afects vascular regulation and causes microvas- cular damage. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common complication of diabetic microangiopathy, afecting about one-third of the patients with DM [2]. Moreover, prevalence increases with increased duration of DM [3]. Screening for DR is crucial for the early diagnosis of the asymptomatic clinical fndings. At least, annual examinations of the ocular fundus are recommended for DR screening in diabetic patients [4]. Early stage of nonproliferative DR is manifested by excessive capillary permeability leading to inner blood retinal barrier dysfunction, capillary basement membrane thicken- ing, pericyte and smooth muscle depletion, microaneurysm formation, capillary closure, and nonperfusion [5, 6]. Early signs of DR can only be detected by clinical observation when this whole process has already started. Despite new technolo- gies to detect retinal changes [7], a methodology for early DR diagnosis before clinical and irreversible manifestations appear is not available. Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Ophthalmology Volume 2016, Article ID 2380764, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/2380764