Retinopathy Predicts Cardiovascular Mortality in Type 2 Diabetic Men and Women
Response to Juutilainen et al.
- Giovanni Targher, MD12,
- Lorenzo Bertolini, MD1,
- Giacomo Zoppini, MD2,
- Giuseppe Lippi, MD3 and
- Luciano Zenari, MD1
- 1Diabetes Unit, “Sacro Cuore” Hospital of Negrar, Negrar, Verona, Italy
- 2Section of Endocrinology, Department of Biomedical and Surgical Sciences, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy
- 3Section of Clinical Chemistry, Department of Biomedical and Morphological Sciences, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy
- Address correspondence to Giovanni Targher, MD, Diabetes Unit, Ospedale “Sacro Cuore –don Calabria”, Via Sempreboni, 5, 37024 Negrar (VR), Italy. E-mail: targher{at}sacrocuore.it
We read with interest the recent article by Juutilainen et al. (1) showing that proliferative retinopathy in both sexes and nonproliferative retinopathy in women independently predict all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-associated death. The authors have cautiously concluded that the sex difference observed in the association between nonproliferative retinopathy and cardiovascular death needs to be confirmed in larger studies. Indeed, I think the relatively low frequency of retinopathy (23%) and the relatively high cut-off chosen for diagnosing hypertension (blood pressure ≥160/95 mmHg or treatment) could be …
