The Risk Factors for Diabetic Retinopathy

ABSTRACT

It is very important to identify the risk factors in retinopathy because diabetic retinopathy is a major problem for the diabetic patients and it also represents the common cause of acquired blindness in adults. We reviewed 269 diabetic patients who visited the department of internal medical and were referred to the department of ophthalmology from January 1993 to December 1994. Clinical characteristics and the laboratory findings of patients with diabetic retinopathy such as age, sex, type of diabetes, duration of diabetes, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglyceride, HbAlc, BUN, creatinine, protenuria were compared with those of normal retinal findings. Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among 269 patients was 29.4% representing non-proliferative changes of 20.4% and proliferative changes of 9.4% respectively. No difference in prevalence of retinopathy was present according to the types of diabetes mellitus and sex(p>0.05). Longer duration of diabetes, higher systolic blood pressure contributed significantly to increasing the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy. No difference in prevalence of retinopathy was present according to the HbAlc, total cholesterol, triglyceride, creatinine but the levels of BUN and proteinuria wer significantly higher in group with diabetic retinopathy.