Objective: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a major disease affecting a large number of young patients. In the recent years, retinal vascular imaging has provided an objective assessment of vascular health in patients with T1DM. Our study aimed to review the current literature on retinal vascular parameters in young patients with T1DM in order to understand the following: (i) How retinal vessels are affected in T1DM (ii) How such vascular changes can be predictive of future diabetic microvascular complications METHODS: We performed a systematic review and extracted relevant data from 17 articles.
Results: We found significant correlations between retinal vessel changes and diabetes-related risk factors (eg, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and obesity), diabetes-related features (eg, diabetes duration and glycemic control), and diabetes-related microvascular complications (eg, diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy).
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that retinal microvasculature is associated with both disease severity and complications in young patients with T1DM.
Keywords: retinal microvasculature; retinal vascular imaging; retinal vasculature; retinal vessel; type 1 diabetes mellitus.
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.