Abstract
Purpose :
To study the association between abnormal renal profiles and presence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME) in Latino (LA) and African American (AA) patients of our South Bronx community. This will be an expanded version of our original pilot study of 100 patients to now include an n of over 1200.
Methods :
This is a retrospective chart review of adult diabetic LA and AA patients seen in our hospital’s eye clinic within the last 5 years. Demographic information and most recent renal profiles including serum creatinine levels, eGFR, and urinary microalbumin to creatinine ratios (ACR) will be recorded. In addition we will record hemoglobin A1C and cholesterol levels. Patients will be stratified based on presence or absence of Diabetic Macular Edema and/or Diabetic Retinopathy. Log values of ACR will be used for data analysis as the ACR values are not normally distributed. Lab values will be compared between groups and the unpaired Student’s t-test will be used to calculate statistical significance.
Results :
We have over 1200 diabetic patients included in our study, 439 AA and 809 in the LA cohort. We have reviewed nearly 200 charts thus far from the AA cohort, 55 with DR of some degree, and 142 with no DR. The DR group had a significantly higher mean ACR compared to the no DR group. (1.823 vs 1.269 p <.0005) The DME subgroup (n=14) also had a higher mean ACR than the no DR group but values did not reach statistical significance. (1.659 vs. 1.269 p > 0.05).
Conclusions :
After reviewing 200 of the 1200 charts in our current study, we have already found significantly elevated ACR values among our African American patients with DR compared to non DR. We hope that a larger n will substantiate an association between ACR and DME as well. If so, then perhaps future studies could evaluate using abnormal ACR values as a prognostic indicator of future diabetic eye disease in these cohorts.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.