Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a complex metabolic disease characterized by abnormal insulin secretion, elevated fasting plasma glucose, and a variety of complications in terminal organs. Retinopathy and nephropathy are important causes of blindness and renal failure respectively, and complications related to diabetes mellitus. Purpose: To determine the relationship between the presence of proteinuria and nephropathy and the severity of diabetic retinopathy. Methods: Transversal study of diabetic patients without previous ophthalmologic treatment, seeing at a reference eye clinic. These patients underwent indirect ophthalmoscopy and blood work- up, and were questioned about duration and type of diabetes mellitus. The presence of risk factors were correlated with the fundus findings. The statistical analysis of the quantitative data was performed using Student's t test. Results: Eighty-one patients were selected, 28 male, 53 female, 28 had insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, 53 had non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Factors statistically related to more severe diabetic retinopathy include: insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (alpha<0.01), nephropathy (alpha<0.05), proteinuria (alpha<0.05), duration of the disease (p<0.001), and elevated fasting plasma glucose (p=0.01). Conclusions: The severity of diabetic retinopathy appears to be associated with the presence of proteinuria and nephropathy besides other risk factors such as duration of disease, type of diabetes, and poor metabolic control. The authors suggest that a quantitative urine test should be included in the evaluation of diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetes mellitus; Retinopathy; Proteinuria; Risk factors; Kidney diseases
