By Colin Kenny, Editor – Diabetes Distilled
Investigators examined whether using metformin is associated with lower rates of diabetic retinopathy in people living with type 2 diabetes, compared with other antidiabetes agents. They performed a retrospective cohort analysis and found that both non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy and proliferative diabetic retinopathy were less common in metformin users, regardless of gender and race of the patients. They felt that long-term use of metformin is independently associated with a significant lower rate of diabetic retinopathy in people who had been living with type 2 diabetes for more than 15 years.
Metformin improves endothelial-dependent vasodilation but there is limited evidence about the role of metformin in diabetic retinopathy (DR). Investigators conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study where they assessed the relationship between long-term oral metformin use and severity of DR in people living with type 2 diabetes for 15 years or longer. They discovered a cohort of 350 patients with diabetic retinopathy and examined their use of metformin. They compared it with a non-metformin control group, where there was no record of metformin as type 2 diabetes therapy.
The investigators found a significant association between long-term metformin treatment and reduced severity of DR in people with established type 2 diabetes. This association persisted even with different HbA1c levels, across the gender and racial cohorts, and is not confounded by sulfonylurea or insulin treatment. Metformin might be used to reduce DR progression in people with a long history of type 2 diabetes.
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