Investigating the links between retinopathy, macular edema and visual acuity in patients with diabetes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to perform a systematic literature review of the epidemiology of diabetic retinopathy and macular edema in order to examine their relationship and to investigate the link between their severity and visual acuity. A search of publicly accessible electronic databases was undertaken to identify data for inclusion. The PubMed database and the Cochrane central register of controlled trials were searched, as were online conference proceedings. The search was restricted to the US, European, UK, Canadian and Australian settings. Each of the reviewed studies contained approximately a third of Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes and mixed diabetes cohorts. The majority of studies examined population-based cohorts that varied substantially in terms of cohort characteristics, methodologies and diabetic retinopathy classification. Few studies reported visual acuity at different levels of retinopathy severity and none reported visual acuity for isolated macular edema. There is a paucity of published data on the relationships between diabetic retinopathy, macular edema severity and visual acuity.

Keywords::

• diabetic retinopathy
• incidence
• macular edema
• prevalence
• visual acuity

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was supported by an unrestricted grant from Eli Lilly and Company. Daniel Tucker, Andrew Palmer and William Valentine are employees of IMS Health. Matt Rousculp and Aniz Girach are employees of Eli Lilly and Company. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.