Vision loss and diabetes type 2

Researchers have found two new treatments that can slow the progression of vision loss in adults at high risk of type 2 diabetes. The loss of vision, called diabetic retinopathy is caused by damage to blood vessels in the retina. In diabetics with retinopathy, blood vessels can leak and cause the retina to swell.

In the largest study of its kind to date, the trial investigators have followed 2,865 type 2 diabetics. Slightly less than 50 percent of patients had mild retinopathy at the beginning of research. Over a period of four years, the researchers took photographs of the retina, for any changes in blood vessels and progression of retinopathy.

"Many people with diabetes have microvascular problems, which can result in kidney problems and amputations of the fingers and toes, and the only place that allows direct observation of the microvasculature is in the back of the eye," said Walter Ambrose, of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and lead investigator of the ACCORD study. "What we have seen in the eyes, is potentially an indicator of what is happening in other parts of the body."

Study patients received three treatments. Therapy to control and normalize blood sugar, treatments to control blood pressure and lead levels in normal and combination lipid therapy with fenofibrate. The fenofibrate, are cholesterol-lowering drugs, which lower triglycerides stored in the body and raise levels of HDL, also known as good cholesterol.

Combined treatment decreased the progression of visual loss in one third. "Previous clinical trials have shown the beneficial effects of intensive control of blood sugar, to slow the progression of diabetic retinopathy in people with type 1 diabetes or newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes," said Paul Sieving, director of the National Eye Institute.