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Diabetic retinopathy rare in children with diabetes mellitus
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Researchers recommended that examinations for diabetic retinopathy could largely begin at 15 years old or later, in a study recently published in Ophthalmology.
Geloneck and colleagues explained that this is due to the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) that they determined in their retrospective, consecutive cohort study.
The study included 370 children with diabetes mellitus (DM) who were younger than 18 years. In reviewing their data, researchers noted the children’s eye examination results, which included cycloplegic refraction and dilated funduscopy, and noted durations of diabetes before a diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy as well as the youngest reported age of diabetic retinopathy.
Results showed that the children had a mean duration of diabetes mellitus of 5.2 years, and no children had diabetic retinopathy. Researchers identified the shortest disease duration as 5 years and the youngest age of patient diagnosed with severe diabetic retinopathy as 15 years old.
"Vision-threatening DR is extremely rare in children, regardless of the duration or control of DM," the researchers wrote. "Current screening guidelines seem to create an unnecessary financial and logistic burden for families and unnecessary appropriation of resources of pediatric ophthalmologists and the health care system."
They continued: "On the basis of the available evidence, we believe that screening examinations for DR could begin at age 15 years or after 5 years of DM duration, whichever occurs later, with an exception made for high-risk children and type 2 diabetic children. Annual examinations could then continue into adulthood, when the risk of developing sight-threatening DR increases."
Researchers also suggested that a group edit current DR screening guidelines. – by Chelsea Frajerman Pardes
Disclosure: The authors reported no relevant financial disclosures.
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