title: Relationship between retinopathy and asymptomatic atherosclerosis determined by measurement of carotid intima-media thickness in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Presence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) may be used as an early marker of atherosclerosis in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the presence of DR and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), which is an indicator of early atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 DM.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty DM patients with retinopathy (DR group), 28 DM patients without retinopathy (non-DR group), and 27 healthy controls (control group) were included in the study. CIMT was assessed using a high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography device.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean CIMT was found to be 0.9±0.17 mm in the DR group, 0.8±0.16 mm in the non-DR group, and 0.7±0.13 mm in the control group. CIMT was found to be statistically significantly higher in the DR group compared to the other 2 groups (p<0.001). When multivariate analysis was performed, presence of DR still remained as an independent risk factor for increased CIMT values.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Presence of DR in type 2 DM patients is an independent risk factor in terms of increased CIMT, which is considered to be a finding of subclinical atherosclerosis. Therefore, we believe that type 2 DM patients with retinopathy should be closely followed in terms of cardiovascular events.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Aydin State Hospital, Aydin, Turkey.
authors.forename: İbrahim
authors.initials: İ
authors.lastname: Kocaoğlu
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Aydin State Hospital, Aydin, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kocaoğlu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Samsun Training and Research Hospital, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Uğur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Arslan
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Türkiye Yüksek İhtisas Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mustafa Mücahit
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Balcı
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vural
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet Numan
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Alp
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Türkiye Yüksek İhtisas Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sinan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aydoğdu
mesh_terms: D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology*; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged