A Cross Sectional Study of Incidence of Retinal Changes in the Newly Detected Cases of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients (original) (raw)

Introduction: The rise in prevalence of diabetes mellitus, especially type 2 diabetes, is a global health and economic problem. Diabetic retinopathy is a frequent complication of the disease and the leading cause of blindness among working-age populations in the developed world. Type 2 diabetes is characterized by a long, often asymptomatic, period of hyperglycaemia. Therefore, end-organ damage, such as diabetic retinopathy, may already be present in individuals who are unaware that they have type 2 diabetes, and the likelihood of this increases with the duration of the diabetes. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted over a period of 1 year from January 2018 to December 2018. Among 400 eyes, 200 patients were diagnosed as new case of type II Diabetes mellitus attending the Outpatient Department of Ophthalmology in M.G.M Medical College Hospital, Jamshedpur and Jharkhand. Both male and female patients of age group between 30-60 years were taken up in this study. The patients were selected non-randomly and the sample was taken for convenience. Type I diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure, pregnant women, patients with opaque media and patients who did not give consent for the study were excluded from our analysis. Special emphasis was laid in categorizing age, sex incidence, presence of DR, staging of DR, presentation of complications and associated comorbid conditions. Results: The predominantly affected group was aged between 40 and 50 years (42.5%). The male: female ratio was 2.1:1. The majority of patients had visual acuity between 6/9 and 6/18 on first presentation (43.5%). 12% of patients had positive family history. 33% of the patients were exposed to risk factors like smoking, alcohol and anaemia. 12% of the patients had bilateral diabetic retinopathy. Of the 400 eyes evaluated 62 eyes had NPDR and 2 had PDR, while 336 had no features of diabetic retinopathy. Among the NPDR, majority (38 eyes) fell under moderate NPDR. One patient had vitreous haemorrhage at the time of presentation. Conclusion: Incidence of DR is common among middle-aged working population. Both eyes were usually affected, though asymmetrically. In conclusion DR including sight threatening complications was found even at the time of diagnosis of diabetes mellitus type II. Early diagnosis and treatment of DR helps to stabilize the visual acuity and prevent further vision loss. Diagnosis of complications of diabetic retinopathy at the earliest helps to control progression of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Increased awareness of the ophthalmological complication in diabetes is necessary in the society to prevent unnecessary visual morbidity in diabetic patients.