Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To assess the prevalence of retinal vascular diseases including diabetic retinopathy(DR), branced retinal vein occlusion(BRVO) and other retinal diseases by population-based study in Japanese population. Methods: Participants were recruited through a ongoing population-based diabetes prevalence study held in Funagata, Yamagata prefecture, Japan, 2001. Ocular fundus image was photographed in one eye of each participant using a 45-degree nonmydriatic fundus camera. For patients who have already diagnosed diabetes mellitus, photographs were obtained from both eyes. A masked photograder evaluated the fundus photographs and detect DR, BRVO and other retinal abnormalities. Results: Total 726 (men 322, women 404, age 35 to 88 with the average 61.3 years) were recruited and 631 (86.9%) gradable photographs ware obtained. The prevalence of DR was 2.9% in newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus patients (diagnosed by oral glucose tolerance test in this study). The severity of DR was background diabetic retinopathy in all the patients. In already diagnosed diabetes mellitus patients, the prevalence of DR was 14.0%. Overall prevalence of DR was estimated approximately 9.5%. Retinal hemorrhages were seen in 4.2% in impaired glucose tolerance group. Retinal hemorhhages were detected in 2.1% of the subjects without diabetes mellitus. BRVO were detected in 0.79%. Epiretinal membrane was detected in 0.63%. Conclusion: The newly diagnosed patients showed the low prevalence of retinopathy and the prevalence was very similar to that of retinal hemorrhages of unknown origins. This is probably due to the shorter duration of diabetes mellitus than those of already diagnosed patients. These results confirm that the population-based surveillance is very important and useful to prevent the DR progression. The prevalences of DR in this study were smaller than that of previous studies concerning Caucasian population.
Keywords: 354 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • 388 diabetic retinopathy • 387 diabetes