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Background DR, not proliferative, more easily controlled through patient monitoring
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Earlier diagnosis and more aggressive control of blood glucose and blood pressure decreases the prevalence of background, but not proliferative, diabetic retinopathy, according to a large study. The authors caution that additional population-based research is necessary to explain these unexpected findings.
Jonathan Brown, MPP, PhD, and colleagues at the Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., identified 6,993 members of a health maintenance organization (Kaiser Permanente) who had dilated retinal exams and a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. The authors compared data on the prevalence of retinopathy in these patients to published data from the Wisconsin Epidemiologic Study of Diabetic Retinopathy.
Background diabetic retinopathy (DR) was much less prevalent in the Kaiser Permanente group than in the Wisconsin study, but the prevalence of proliferative DR appeared unchanged from the earlier study. Background DR preceded diagnosis in almost 21% of the WESDR subjects, but in only 2% of the Kaiser Permanente group.
The study is published in the September issue of Diabetes Care.