The Prevalence of Diabetic Retinopathy and Its Relationship with Microalbuminuria in Type2 Diabetic Patients at Diabetes Center of Hamadan City

Introduction & Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in western developed countries and developing countries, whose prevalence is increasing worldwide. One of the vascular complications of diabetes is diabetic retinopathy. Given the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy and its complications in patients with type 2 diabetes, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of retinopathy in diabetic patients and to determine the relationship between microalbuminuria and retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes in Hamadan. This study was a cross-sectional study in which 284 medical records of patients referred to the Diabetes Center of Hamadan were studied whose eye examinations were recorded and their laboratory tests have been measured at a laboratory center. Then, the data obtained from the average of experiments during the last year and examinations carried out were entered in the check list and the statistical results of the data were analyzed and the relationship between microalbuminuria and retinopathy was evaluated. In our study, 284 patients were studied. 154 (54.22%) of the patients in our study had retinopathy. In persons who had retinopathy, 36.36% of patients were with mild NPDR, 27.92% with moderate NPDR, 7.79% with severe NPDR and 27.92% had PDR. In our study, 32.04% of patients had microalbuminuria, and of these, 80.21% also had retinopathy. There was a significant relationship between retinopathy and microalbuminuria. The results of this study showed that the prevalence of retinopathy in our study is about 54 percent, which is relatively a higher prevalence than that in other similar studies. Also, due to the strong correlation between the presence of microalbuminuria and retinopathy and also duration of diabetes, a closer look at diabetic patients for microalbuminuria in periodic eye examinations is recommended.