Diabetic retinopathy and its association with low glomerular filtration rate: a cross-sectional analysis of diabetes patients of community clinics across India

• Published in: International journal of diabetes in developing countries 2020-09, Vol.40 (3), p.353-356
• Main Authors: Dash, Kalpana, Ahmed, Aftab, Das, Sambit, Jaganmohan, Balaji, Tippisetty, Surekha, Kolukula, Vamsi Krishna, Seshadri, Krishna G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cross-sectional studies; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetic retinopathy; Epidermal growth factor receptors; Family Medicine; General Practice; Glomerular filtration rate; Health Administration; Kidney diseases; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Article; Retinopathy; Statistical analysis
• ISSN: 0973-3930; 1998-3832
• DOI: 10.1007/s13410-019-00779-2

Aims To determine the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with T2DM having low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Methods A cross-sectional retrospective data analysis of T2DM patients’ records who were screened for DR across Apollo Sugar Clinics from June 2016 to December 2016. DR was diagnosed through fundus examination; patients having eGFR values were grouped into eGFR < 60 and eGFR ≥ 60 mg/ml/1.73 m 2 . Appropriate statistical tests were applied to identify the association of eGFR and DR, and significance was set at 2-tailed p ≤ 0.05. Results A total of 1547 T2DM patients were screened; mean (SD) age was 56.7 (10.0) years. Among them, data of 443 patients with eGFR were included in the analysis. Mean eGFR was 91.2 mg/ml/1.73 m 2 ; 12.5% patients had eGFR ≤ 60 mg/ml/1.73 m 2 and 87.5% had ≥ 60 mg/ml/1.73 m 2 . DR was observed in 79 (17.8%) patients; it was higher in males (62%) than in females (38%). Further, the proportion of patients with DR was significantly higher in patients with eGFR ≤ 60 mg/ml/1.73 m 2 compared with that in patients with eGFR ≥ 60 mg/ml/1.73 m 2 (38% vs. 15%; p < 0.001). Conclusion Association of DR with low eGFR in patients with T2DM may suggest presence of diabetes kidney disease in a community, thus reaffirming the significance of DR screening in community diabetes practices.