Factors associated with diabetic nephropathy in subjects with proliferative retinopathy

Aim The purpose was to compare the phenotype of subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus having both retinopathy and nephropathy with that of subjects having retinopathy but no nephropathy. Methods We recruited 196 subjects; 85 were normoalbuminuric (controls), whilst cases consisted of patients with micro- ( n = 66) or macroalbuminuria ( n = 45). Both groups underwent 24-h blood pressure (BP) monitoring and were analysed regarding markers of the metabolic syndrome, inflammation (erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR] and high-sensitivity CRP [hsCRP]) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Results Cases had significantly higher white cell count ( P = 0.02), ESR ( P