Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetics and its correlation with various clinical and metabolic factors

Retinopathy is a major microvascular complication of type 2 diabetes. A cross sectional study was performed at a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi to estimate the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes (N = 199) and to study its association with clinical and metabolic factors. DR was diagnosed on the basis of clinical direct and indirect ophthalmoscopy, slit lamp examination and four-field stereo colour fundus photography combined with fundus fluorescein angiography. Of 199 patients, 27 (13.5 %) had retinopathy. A family history of diabetes, smoking, anaemia, elevated blood urea and serum creatinine levels and elevated lipoprotein a levels were more common in patients with retinopathy. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, smoking (P = 0.002) and a family history of diabetes (P = 0.048) were independent predictors of retinopathy. The prevalence of CAD was higher in patients with retinopathy (37.04 %) than in those without retinopathy (23.25 %), however, this difference failed to achieve statistical significance.