Characterization of Diabetic Retinopathy in Trimesters of Pregnancy

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between trimester of pregnancy and stage of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in a cohort of women with diabetes. Methods: In this single-center, retrospective cohort study, data were collected from adult women with diabetes who experienced a pregnancy at 5 timepoints: prepregnancy, each trimester, and postpregnancy. Progression, manifestation, and improvement of DR were tracked via logistic regression. Results: A total of 158 patients were analyzed. Among them, 13 (8.2%) showed progression to worse stage of DR during pregnancy, of whom 6.9%, 5.0%, and 14.3% had progression within the prepregnancy/first trimester, second trimester, and third trimester brackets, respectively, and 10.0% progressed postpregnancy; differences between the trimesters regarding incidence of DR progression were nonsignificant ( P = .42). Of patients with no retinopathy at baseline, 4.62%, 7.69%, and 5.88% developed DR in each of the 3 trimesters, respectively, and 6.45% developed DR postpregnancy; differences in rates of DR manifestation were nonsignificant ( P = .97). Conclusions: Pregnancy stage was not associated with risk of DR manifestation or progression in this cohort.