Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness before the age of 50. The etiopathogenesis of DR is still controversial. Even if the microvascular damage is undeniable, the place and importance of the nerve damage must be defined. Our objective was to evaluate the association between DR and diabetic neuropathy (DN) in type 2 diabetics.

Methods: It was a cross-sectional, comparative study that included 100 type 2 diabetic patients divided equally into two groups according to the presence or absence of DR, matched according to age, gender and duration of diabetes. We detected neuropathic damage using the DN4 score. We also evaluated the deep tendon reflexes and looked for signs of autonomic neuropathy such as gastroparesis, intractable constipation, and erectile dysfunction.

Results: The average age of our population was 62.01±9.37 years and the sex ratio (Men/Women) was 1.08. DR had a mean duration of progression of 3.84±2.63 years. 39% of the total population had diabetic neuropathy distributed as follows: 71% peripheral neuropathy, 11% autonomic neuropathy, 18% peripheral and autonomic neuropathy. DN was 4.57 times more present in the group with DR than in the group without DR (64% vs 14%) and DR was significantly associated with DN (P<0.001). Multivariate analysis confirmed this association (P<0.001, OR=9.6).

Conclusion: Our study showed a strong association between DN and DR. These results support the involvement of ophthalmic nerve damage to a greater extent than our prerequisites, giving rise to a promising field of investigation (with extensive ophthalmic and neurological imaging).