The linear association between estimated glomerular filtration rate and diabetic retinopathy: a cross-sectional study.
Higher kidney function is linked to lower odds of diabetic retinopathy.
The linear association between estimated glomerular filtration rate and diabetic retinopathy: a cross-sectional study.
Diabetic retinopathy (diabetic retinopathy) is the predominant microvascular complication of diabetes and the main cause of preventable blindness in working-age adults.
This study aimed to investigate the association between eGFR and diabetic retinopathy prevalence in diabetic patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
We included 2001 adults with diabetes mellitus (858 men and 1143 women; mean age 64.0 ± 11.3 years) who attended the internal-medicine outpatient clinics of two hospitals in southern Taiwan between April 2002 and November 2004.
kidneys working better meant lower chance of eye damage
Because the retina and kidney share similar microvascular architecture, renal dysfunction-routinely expressed as the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)-is biologically plausible as a marker of diabetic retinopathy risk.
Higher eGFR was inversely associated with the odds of diabetic retinopathy across progressively adjusted models.
When modeled as a continuous variable, higher eGFR was linked to lower diabetic retinopathy odds in Model 1 (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.83-0.92; P < 0.0001), Model 2 (OR 0.90; 95% CI 0.85-0.95; P < 0.0001), and remained significant after full adjustment in Model 3 (OR 0.92; 95% CI 0.87-0.98; P = 0.0056), indicating a robust inverse association.
Future work should dissect the shared microvascular pathways linking the kidney and retina and determine whether interventions that preserve renal function can translate into meaningful reductions in retinopathy risk.