Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Pathophysiology of Diabetic retinopathy is a complex process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between insulin resistance, high sensitive CRP level as inflammation markers and diabetic retinopathy.

Methods: In this cross-sectional, 342 patients with type 2 diabetes were selected. The following data were recorded: age, sex, duration of diabetes and type of medical treatment. HbA1c, FBS, HSCRP, lipid profiles and insulin level were measured for all patients. Ophthalmologic examination was performed for all patients by an expert ophthalmologist. Insulin resistance was calculated by HOMA-IR formula. Relation between HSCRP levels and HOMA-IR was evaluated with diabetic retinopathy.

Results: A total of 342 patients (108 male, 234 female) were enrolled. The mean age of patients was 55.05±9.8 years. Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in our patients was 30.4% (21% non-proliferative retinopathy and 9.35% proliferative retinopathy). This analysis was shown that HbA1C and duration of diabetes are only independent predictive factors for diabetic retinopathy. There was a differences between the serum hsCRP levels of those with and without retinopathy, however this difference was not significant (P=0.47). A significant association was found between diabetic proliferative retinopathy and insulin resistance (P=<0.001).

Conclusion: It seems, apart from known risk factors for diabetic retinopathy, insulin resistance is one of the possible factors for progression of diabetic retinopathy.

Key Words: Retinopathy, High sensitive CRP, Insulin resistance, HOMA-IR, Diabetes, Inflammation