Long-term follow-up of and underlying medical conditions in patients with diabetic exudative maculopathy

Abstract

Recent reports of risk factors for and survival of patients with diabetic retinopathy do not include exudative maculopathy as a separate entity. We therefore studied a group of hypertensive Type II diabetic subjects with exudative maculopathy (n = 26) compared to a carefully matched hypertensive diabetic comparison group without retinopathy (n = 26) over seven years. Diabetic maculopathy patients had higher mean diastolic blood pressure (101.6 +/- 14 versus 94.8 +/- 10 mmHg, p less than 0.05), serum cholesterol (6.65 +/- 2.2 versus 5.9 +/- 1.31 mmol/l), HDL2 subfraction levels (0.46 +/- 0.23 versus 0.32 +/- 0.18 mmol/l) and a higher prevalence of hyperlipidaemia (54% versus 35%) compared to the comparison group. After seven years, the maculopathy group showed a strikingly higher prevalence of renal failure and nephrotic syndrome (42% versus 8%, p less than 0.05) and of macroproteinuria (58% versus 15%, p less than 0.01) compared to the comparison group. Mortality and cardiovascular disease event rate was 12% and 38% in the maculopathy and 15% and 31% respectively in the comparison group. We conclude that although mortality is not significantly higher in diabetics with exudative maculopathy, proteinuria, renal failure and nephrotic syndrome may be associated features on long term follow-up. Hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia may also be risk factors in the development of diabetic maculopathy.