January 1, 2008Diabetic Medicine
Diabetic retinopathy is associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular events in Type 2 diabetic patients
Authors
Discussion
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Implication
Cohort study reveals increased incident cardiovascular events in type 2 diabetes with diabetic retinopathy, highlighting eye damage as an independent vascular marker.
Key Points
- To examine the relationship between diabetic retinopathy and the incidence of cardiovascular disease events in adults with type 2 diabetes.
- Followed a cohort of N=2,103 outpatients with type 2 diabetes and no baseline cardiovascular disease for approximately 7 years.
- Graded retinal status via fundoscopy into three categories: no retinopathy, non-proliferative retinopathy, and proliferative or laser-treated retinopathy.
- Tracked incident cardiovascular events, defined as non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal ischaemic stroke, coronary revascularization, or cardiovascular death.
- Incident cardiovascular disease events occurred in 406 of 2,103 participants over approximately 7 years of follow-up.
- After adjusting for age, BMI, waist circumference, smoking, lipids, HbA1c, diabetes duration, and medications, cardiovascular risk was significantly elevated for non-proliferative (HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.2–2.6 for men; HR 1.67, 95% CI 1.3–2.8 for women) and proliferative/laser-treated retinopathy (HR 3.75, 95% CI 2.0–7.4 for men; HR 3.81, 95% CI 2.2–7.3 for women; P < 0.001 for all).
- Further adjustment for hypertension and advanced nephropathy attenuated non-proliferative risk but preserved a markedly higher cardiovascular risk for proliferative/laser-treated retinopathy (HR 2.08, 95% CI 1.02–3.7 for men; HR 2.41, 95% CI 1.05–3.9 for women).
Cite This Study
Targher et al. (2008) studied this question.