Stringent glycemic control is still the key to evade diabetic retinopathy.

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the major determinants of diabetic retinopathy. Study Design: Cross sectional, case control study. Setting: Department of Biochemistry, Basic Medical Sciences Institute, Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre, Karachi. Period: March 2015 to April 2016. Material & Methods: Ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Board of JPMC. A total of 208 people including type 2 diabetic patients and healthy control subjects; of male gender, aged between ≥30 years and ≤ 60 years were recruited and assigned to four study groups. Each group comprise of 52 individuals, depending on the ophthalmoscopy findings, i.e. healthy controls, diabetic without retinopathy (NDR), diabetic with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and diabetic with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Fasting blood sugar was estimated using GOD-PAP method, while HbA1c was estimated by HPLC method. Data was analyzed on SPSS software version 16. Results: Diabetics with Diabetic Retinopathy had a poor glycemic control as compare to Diabetics without Diabetic Retinopathy (FBS; 109.12 ± 13.81 vs. 184.29 ± 40.07 vs. 188.6 ± 47.68 vs. 217.06 ± 62.33; p-value = 0.001) (HbA1c; 6.73 ± 0.56 vs. 8.40 ± 1.77 vs. 9.71 ± 1.85 vs. 14.91 ± 3.87; p-value = 0.001). For Diabetic Retinopathy the odds ratio of glycemic control i.e. FBS was observed as 1.019 & HbA1c was recorded as 1.561; which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Glycemic indicators; including FBS and HbA1c, are found to be the major determinants of Diabetic Retinopathy in our study.