Abstract
Purpose :
Visual disorders in geriatric patients have repercussions beyond visual acuity, such as decreased functional ability, and increased depression. We performed a retrospective, observational clinical study to find the most prevalent reasons for consult and diagnoses in a Mexican geriatric population.
Methods :
We analyzed 2769 clinical files from an ophthalmologic reference center (Centro de Atención Médica Santos y de la Garza Evia, Tecnológico de Monterrey; Nuevo León, México) from 2010 to 2015. Inclusion criteria were: patients of ≥65 years, both genders. Files without recorded reason for consult, as well as patients with prior ophthalmologic surgeries were excluded. Variables such as age, gender, comorbidities, chief complaint and diagnosis prior to treatment were analyzed. Statistical data such as mean, median, interquartile range and standard deviation were obtained. The odds ratio for developing eye disease with each of the comorbidities was analyzed.
Results :
A total of 500 files satisfied the stablished criteria, 67.4% (n=337) were women. The average age was 71.6 ± 6.7 years (range 65-101). The most common reason for consult was decreased vision (57%), followed by routine checkup (9%) and dry eye (7%). Cataract (30%) was the most prevalent ophthalmologic disease, followed by diabetic retinopathy (10%), and dry eye syndrome (9.2%). Systemic arterial hypertension (44.2%) was the most common comorbidity, followed by diabetes mellitus type 2 (33.2%), cardiopathy (4.8%) and dyslipidemia (4.4%). A high probability of having diabetic retinopathy was observed if the patient had diabetes mellitus type 2 (OR:420.98, IC 95% 6863.35-25.82, p<.001), or hypertension (OR:1.87, IC 95% 3.19-1.10, p=.02); and a high probability of having hypertensive retinopathy was found if the patient had arterial hypertension (OR:25.10, IC 95% 433.84-1.45, p=.02), or dyslipidemia (OR:12.39, IC 95% 53.36-2.87, p<.001). No correlation was found amongst the other systemic comorbidities and ophthalmic diagnoses.
Conclusions :
The main reason for consult in the geriatric population analyzed was decreased vision. Independently of the reason for consult, the most common diagnosis was cataract. Diabetes mellitus type 2 and arterial hypertension, are robust risk factors for the coexistence of diabetic retinopathy; while arterial hypertension and dyslipidemia are risk factors for hypertensive retinopathy.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.