Retinopathy in patients of Tikur Anbessa Hospital diabetic clinic

A total of 302 diabetic patients were selected from regular attendants of t he Tikur Anbessa Hospital (TAH) diabetic clinic to determine the prevalence of retinopathy from December 1994 to March 1995. The mean age was 41.4 +/- 14.4 years (range 14-85). There were 160 males (53%) and 142 females (47%) . One hundred forty (46%) were type 1 and 162 (53.6%) were type 2. The mean duration of diabetes was 9.4 +/- 5.4 years and the mean Hemoglobin Alc (Hb Alc) was 10.4 + 2.2 %. On the day of the examination the mean fasting blood glucose (FBG) and random blood glucose (RBG) were 195.5 +/- 79.9mg/dl and 273.1 +/- 114.5 mg/dl respectively. The mean serum total cholesterol, trigl ycerides, LDL, VLDL and GDL were 166.5 +/- 45.5 mg/dl, 129.9 +/- 92.4 mg/dl , 94.5 +/- 36.4 mg/dl, 24.4 +/- 15.1 mg/dl and 44.3 +/- 11.5 mg/dl respecti vely. The overall prevalence of retinopathy was 37.8% out of which 108 pati ents (36.1 %) had back-ground retinopathy and 5 patients (1.7%) had prolife rative retinopathy. The retina could not he visualized in three patients be cause of dense cataract. Retinopathy correlated positively with age, durati on of diabetes and blood pressure respectively, however no significant corr elation was seen with mean total HgAlc and serum lipids. Prevalence of reti nopathy was comparable in type 1 and type 2 (p > 0.05). The prevalence of r etinapathy in our patients relative to the duration of diabetes mellitus is high. Therefore, improving facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of r etinopathy is recommended.