Retinopathy may double heart failure risk in patients with Type 2 diabetes, study indicates.

In continuing coverage from a previous edition of First Look, MedWire (4/18, Wilkinson) reported that "retinopathy may double the risk for heart failure (HF) in patients with Type 2 diabetes," according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, "studied 1,021 individuals with Type 2 diabetes from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, all of whom had normal renal function and were free of clinical CHD or HF at baseline." According to the researchers, diabetic retinopathy...was identified in 125 (12.8 percent) participants between 1993 and 1995." Over the course of "nine years of follow-up, 106...participants experienced incident HF events, and those with retinopathy were far more likely to develop HF than those without retinopathy." The authors also found that "after controlling for common HF risk factors, individuals with retinopathy remained more than twice as likely as others to develop HF."