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Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy increases with elevated erythrocyte AR levels, study finds

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FUKUI, Japan — The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy increases as erythrocyte aldose reductase levels increase in diabetes patients, researchers here found.

Yoshio Akagi, MD, PhD and colleagues with Fukui Medical University and the National Institute of Health Sciences, Japan, compared 611 patients with non-insulin dependant diabetes mellitus to 73 control patients in a cross-sectional study. Erythrocyte AR levels were correlated with patient age, duration of diabetes, and HbA_1c levels.

According to the report, the prevalence of DR significantly increased with increased erythrocyte AR levels in patients with a less than 10 year duration of diabetes. A similar but nonsignificant correlation between prevalence of retinopathy and increased erythrocyte AR levels was also seen in patients who had had diabetes for between 10 and 20 years.

The study suggests that inhibition of AR in patients with early NIDDM may be beneficial in reducing the development of diabetic retinopathy, the authors concluded.

The report is published in the British Medical Journal.