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Poor glucose control puts pediatric diabetics at risk for retinopathy
WASHINGTON — Poor glucose control was found to be a risk factor for diabetic retinopathy in children with type 1 diabetes, according to a poster presentation here at the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus meeting.
Kaori Taoka, MD, and colleagues at the Mie National Hospital in Japan studied possible risk factors for retinopathy in children with diabetes who presented with the absence of retinopathy or with nonproliferative retinopathy.
The researchers prospectively followed 116 insulin-dependent children between the ages of 1 and 16 for a median duration of 10.5 years. Life-table analyses were created for each patient, documenting factors such as age at diabetic onset, duration of diabetes and HbA1c levels.
No patient developed retinopathy before puberty. Nine patients developed proliferative retinopathy in their teens, correlated with consistently poor glucose control. No correlation was found between the severity of diabetes or the patient’s age at onset and the development of proliferative retinopathy.
The study authors concluded that patients with type 1 diabetes who practice strict glucose control and have no family history of eye disease do not need ophthalmic examinations more frequently than children without type 1 diabetes.