Diabetes Care, Vol 5, Issue 2 97-100, Copyright © 1982 by American Diabetes Association
Risk factors associated with severe proliferative retinopathy in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
HJ Bodansky, AG Cudworth, PL Drury and EM Kohner
The natural history of disease and suspected risk factors for bad prognosis
were investigated in 40 subjects with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
who had severe retinopathy and in 22 patients with a similar duration of
diabetes without evidence of complications. The retinopathy group showed a
marked excess of men (ratio 2:1). Examination of the data in the literature
also showed a striking excess of men, 61% (P less than 0.001) in patients
with insulin-dependent diabetes and severe microvascular disease. In
addition, proliferative retinopathy was found to have significant
associations with current poor diabetic control, hypertension, and previous
treatment with once-daily insulin regimens, particularly with protamine
zinc insulin.