Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Diabetes Mellitus. 'Seeing' beyond Glycemic Control

[...]there was no significant difference in progression to STDR. A multipleregression analysis taking into account many of the known risk factors for DR, including ethnicity, sex, diabetes duration, age at diabetes diagnosis, systolic blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), glomerular filtration rate, body mass index, oral antihyperglycemic agents and insulin use, and the number of antihypertensive medications used, still identified an independent impact of OSA on progression of retinopathy. Altaf and colleagues demonstrated a dose-dependent relationship, and both the apnea-hypopnea index and oxygen desaturation index were significantly associated with progression to advanced DR. It should be pointed out that this study did not focus on the effects of OSA interventions, and the number of patients who were compliant with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment was relatively small. According to the data of Altaf and colleagues, the conversion rate from background to advanced retinopathy is low, with a progression rate from R0 and R1 to R2 and R3 over a 4-year period of z10%.