Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Diabetes: Molecular Mechanisms
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1383345
This article is part of the Research Topic Targeting early-stage Diabetic Retinopathy and Age-related Macular Degeneration: Diagnosis and management. View all articles

Glycemic profile variability as an independent predictor of diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes: A prospective cohort study

Provisionally accepted
Fatemeh Dehghani Firouzabadi Fatemeh Dehghani Firouzabadi 1Amirhossein Poopak Amirhossein Poopak 1Sahar Samimi Sahar Samimi 1Niloofar Deravi Niloofar Deravi 1Pooria Nakhaei Pooria Nakhaei 1Ali Sheikhy Ali Sheikhy 2Fatemeh Moosaie Fatemeh Moosaie 1Soghra Rabizadeh Soghra Rabizadeh 1Alipasha Meysamie Alipasha Meysamie 1Manouchehr Nakhjavani Manouchehr Nakhjavani 1Alireza Esteghamati Alireza Esteghamati 1*
  • 1 Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  • 2 Non Communicable Diseases Research Center, Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Glycemic variability is a novel predictor for diabetic complications. Different studies have demonstrated contradictory results for the association between HbA1c variability and diabetic retinopathy. We aimed to assess the relationship between visit-to-visit variability in glycemic profile (HbA1c, 2hPP, FBS) and diabetic retinopathy.Methods: Patients with type 2 diabetes, were monitored for the development of retinopathy for 10 years. The association between the incidence of retinopathy and glycemic variability were assessed via cox regression analysis and coefficient of variation for glycemic indices were compared using independent sample t-test.Results: Patients with diabetic retinopathy had significantly higher glycemic profile variability.The incidence of retinopathy was positively correlated with cv-FBS10% (10 percent of coefficient of variances), cv-FBS20%, cv-2hpp10%, and cv-HbA1c5%. Our analysis revealed that higher variability of FBS increased the incidence and progression of retinopathy (HR: 12.29, pvalue: 0.003).Our findings demonstrated glycemic profile variability as an independent risk factor for diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes and support glycemic profile variability measurement in addition to common glycemic parameters to improve risk stratification in patients with type 2 diabetes. Further investigation is required to demonstrate the long-term effects of alleviating glycemic variability, on the prognosis of patients with type 2 diabetes.

    Keywords: Glycemic profile variability, HbA1c, 2hpp, FBS, diabetes type 2, Diabetic Retinopathy

    Received: 07 Feb 2024; Accepted: 16 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dehghani Firouzabadi, Poopak, Samimi, Deravi, Nakhaei, Sheikhy, Moosaie, Rabizadeh, Meysamie, Nakhjavani and Esteghamati. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alireza Esteghamati, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417863181, Tehran, Iran

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.