Risk Factors For Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy And Diabetic Macular Edema In The South Indian Population

Purpose: To identify non-genetic risk factors for diabetic retinopathy (DR) in a study sample that will be used for whole exome sequencing (WES), to detect genetic variants associated with DR and diabetic macular edema (DME) in south Indian population.Methods: Participants were patients with type 2 diabetes and DR grading who provided consent and blood for genetic studies. There were two groups of patients, the first group was recruited prospectively from Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India and the second group was retrospectively enrolled from SN-DREAMS. Fundus photographs and/or clinical examination were used to grade for DR severity and DME according to the International DR Severity Scale. Other covariates collected were age, sex, duration of diabetes, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, and …