Diabetes-related eye disorder signals stroke risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Damage to the retina that sometimes comes with diabetes is associated with an increased risk of having a stroke, researchers report.

"Diabetes can exert its effects on multiple organs in the body, and damage in the blood vessels seen in the eye -- retinopathy -- is a marker of probably unseen damage occurring elsewhere," Dr. Tien Y. Wong told Reuters Health. "Blood vessel damage in the eye is linked to blood vessel damage in the brain, heralding the onset of a stroke."

Wong, at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues conducted a population-based study involving 1617 middle-aged people with diabetes. At the start of the study, 197 participants had moderate retinopathy and 44 had severe retinopathy, the team reports in the American Heart Associations journal Stroke.

During an average follow-up of almost 8 years, 75 strokes occurred in the group as a whole.

After making allowances for various stroke risk factors -- such as blood pressure, insulin treatment and cholesterol levels -- having diabetic retinopathy more than doubled the likelihood of having a stroke.

"For eye care professionals -- ophthalmologists and optometrists," concluded Wong, the findings show "that if you detect retinopathy in a person who has diabetes, that person may require a more comprehensive assessment of their stroke risk."

SOURCE: Stroke, February 2007.