Relation between early stages of diabetic retinopathy and early stages of diabetic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes in Egypt

Abstract

Background. Diabetes mellitus is a pandemic disease. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is the most common type. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic kidney disease (DKD) are disabling chronic complications. The relation between both is not yet well-established in T2DM. Egypt is considered one of the top ten countries regarding the prevalence of diabetes that makes diabetes and its complications a major health problem. This encouraged us to conduct this research. Materials and methods. The study included 79 patients with T2DM divided into two groups according to the presence of retinopathy. Both groups were subdivided according to urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) into normoalbuminuric and albuminuric subgroups. Retinopathy group was further subdivided according to severity of retinopathy into mild, moderate and severe non-proliferative DR (NPDR). Statistical analysis was done and relation between the severity of retinopathy and UACR was studied. Results. Patients with retinopathy had significantly higher diabetes duration and UACR than non retinopathy group. Also in subgroups of normoalbuminuria and albuminuria, retinopathy group was significantly higher regarding the same parameters. On subdividing the retinopathy group according to severity, severe NPDR group had significantly higher UACR. The severity of DR was significantly positively correlated with UACR. Conclusions. The present study identified a significantly positive correlation between early stages of DR and UACR in patients with T2DM in Egypt. Not all cases of DR had DKD especially in early stages and also not all cases of DKD are associated with the presence of DR in T2DM.