Age at Onset and the Risk of Proliferative Retinopathy in Type 1 Egyptian Diabetic Patients

Background: Growing evidence suggests that the age at onset of diabetes may influence the development of proliferative retinopathy in type 1 diabetic patients.Aim of Work: This study was designed to evaluate how the age at onset of type 1 diabetes influences the long-term risk of proliferative retinopathy in Egyptian patients with type 1 diabetes.Subjects and Methods: This study included 115 type 1 Egyptian diabetic patients (64 females, 51 males) attending the outpatient clinics of NIDE and 50 normal controls. Blood pressure, waist circumference, BMI, FBS, HBA1c, lipid profile, urea, creatinine, uric acid and microalbuminurea were measured. Fundus examination, chest X-ray and ECG were performed for all subjects and echocardiography was done when indicated.Results: 46.1 % of of patients with type 1 diabetes included in the study had no diabetic retinopathy. Non proliferative diabetic retinopathy was found in 32.2% of patients, while proliferative retinopathy was found in 21.7% of patients. There was a highly significant statistical difference among the studied patients regarding systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, HBA1c, microalbuminurea and duration of diabetes being higher in patients having proliferative retinopathy, than patients having non proliferative retinopathy, being lower in patients with no diabetic retinopathy. when we compared patients included in the study according to the age at onset of type 1 diabetes; there was a high statistical difference among the studied patients being higher in patients with age at onset between 5 and 14 years of age (27.5%) than patients with age at onset !14 years (15.1%), being lower in patients with age at onset between 0 and 4 years (7.7%).Conclusion: The highest risk was in age at onset 5-14 years, whereas the lowest risk was in age at onset 0-4 years.