Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among diabetic patients in a tertiary hospital

Objective: To determine the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) among Filipino patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and determine the risk factors. Methods: Two hundred forty-one patients from the diabetes clinic of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) were interviewed using a standard questionnaire. They underwent dilated retinal examination, stereoscopic fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, and laboratory testing. The risk factors studied for the presence of DR were age; sex; duration of DM; medications; family history of DM; smoking; blood glucose, cholesterol, and serum creatinine levels. Results: The clinical and angiographic prevalence of DR were 61.8% and 83.6% respectively. Retinopathy was significantly associated with the duration of DM (p = 0.02) and elevation of serum creatinine (p = 0.05). Approximately 20% had proliferative disease at the time of screening. There was a high agreement between clinical and angiographic findings (kappa = 0.91, p = 0.001). Conclusions: High prevalence of DR was seen among DM patients treated at UP-PGH. Elevated serum creatinine and longer duration of DM were significantly associated with the presence of retinopathy. Retinal screening of all newly diagnosed DM is, therefore, recommended including regular follow-up evaluation.