High levels of FBS and HbA1c and their association with diabetic retinopathy: a study in the north of Iran

Seyed Ahmad Rasoulinejad; Neda Meftah; Mohammad Saeed Maniati; Mahmood Maniati

doi:10.1007/s40200-022-00986-5

High levels of FBS and HbA1c and their association with diabetic retinopathy: a study in the north of Iran

J Diabetes Metab Disord. 2022 Mar 10;21(1):399-406. doi: 10.1007/s40200-022-00986-5. eCollection 2022 Jun.

Authors

Seyed Ahmad Rasoulinejad¹, Neda Meftah¹, Mohammad Saeed Maniati², Mahmood Maniati³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Ayatollah Rouhani Hospital, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
² Neuroscience Research Center, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ English Department, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Diabetic retinopathy, which is a common complication of diabetes, is one of the most common reasons of blindness in adults. There are several potential risk factors for diabetic retinopathy such as hypertension (HTN), hyperlipidemia (HLP), high fasting blood sugar (FBS), and high Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Yet, ethnicity is another factor which may contribute to diabetic retinopathy regardless of the potential risk factors mentioned. The aim of this study, therefore, is to find the risk factors associated with diabetic retinopathy in the north of Iran.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study including a total of 1,125 patients divided into three groups as follows: (i) patients with no diabetic retinopathy (NDR group; n = 398); (ii) patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (non-PDR group; n = 408); (iii) patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR group; n = 319). The laboratory data were collected from patients for analysis.

Results: Diabetic patients with retinopathy had significantly higher levels of FBS compared with those without retinopathy (p = 0.001). Patients with PDR or non-PDR had higher levels of HbA1c compared with patients without retinopathy (p = 0.001). In contrast, no association was observed between HTN or HLP and diabetic retinopathy. On the other hand, duration of diabetes was another important factor affecting diabetic retinopathy.

Conclusions: Higher levels of FBS and HbA1c were observed in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Monitoring and controlling of FBS and HbA1c of diabetic patients could prevent the occurrence of diabetic retinopathy.

Keywords: Diabetes; Diabetic retinopathy; PDR; Proliferative diabetic retinopathy; Risk factors.