Identification of independent risk factors for the development of diabetic retinopathy requiring treatment
November 14th, 2009 Posted by: admin
Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy is screened by fundus photography and screening intervals are defined according to general rules to ensure that vision threatening complications are detected even if the progression of the disease is fast. The resulting superfluous examinations of patients with slow disease progression can be reduced by a more exact decision model that allows an adjustment of the screening interval to each patient's individual risk profile. This requires an identification of independent risk factors for reaching treatment end points for diabetic retinopathy.Methods: Clinical data from 5365 patients who had undergone 23 324 examinations at the Department of Ophthalmology, Ã rhus University Hospital between Jan 1st 1994 and Dec 31st 2007 were used to identify independent risk factors for progression of treatmen
