DIABETIC RETINOPATHY

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence andcharacteristics of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients attending the free eye camps for cataractsurgery held in southern Punjab, Pakistan. Study Design: It was a cross sectional study. Setting:Free eye camps organized in different regions of the Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Period: July2004 to June 2015. Material and methods: These community-based eye camps were held bythe Department of Ophthalmology in collaboration of department of Pathology, B.V. Hospital,Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Participants were interviewed and examined by the ophthalmologists todetermine their demographic characteristics, presence & duration of medical conditions andthe regularity of their visits to eye care providers. All patients screened to have diabetes mellitus(DM) by pathologists underwent an eye examination through dilated pupils by using direct/indirect ophthalmoscope and slit-lamp bio-microscope to check for any signs of DR. Mainoutcome measure was the presence of diabetic retinopathy and its complications, which wasclassified as mild, moderate, severe NPDR, and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) basedon the clinical examination. Results: Of the 7989 screened patients, 759 (9.5%) had type-II DM.Of them, 638 patients (84%) underwent eye examination. Mean age of the diabetics was 45.75 ±8.17 years. Diabetic retinopathy was prevalent in 93 (15%) patients followed by non-proliferativeretinopathy was found in 87 (93.5%) patients and proliferative retinopathy was found only in 6(6.5%) patients. More male 52 (20.39%) were effected of DR as compare to female 41 (10.7%).Highly significant association of DR with duration of DM was seen. (P: 0.001). Conclusion: Itis concluded in this study that DR is commonly prevalent in Southern Punjab and the mostcommon type of DR is non-proliferative retinopathy. DR frequently prevalent in male diabeticsas compare to female diabetics and significant association of duration of DM with DR wasfound.