Intensive and careful control of blood sugar levels in diabetics can cut their risk of diabetic retinopathy in half, according to a new study from the NIH.

The results of the study, a follow-up to the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) Eye Study, were presented at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting in New Orleans on June 11, and the results were published in the journal Diabetes Care.

“This study sends a powerful message to people with type 2 diabetes who worry about losing vision,” said Emily Chew, M.D., deputy director of the NEI Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications and lead author of the study report. “Well-controlled glycemia, or blood sugar level, has a positive, measurable, and lasting effect on eye health.”

The study lasted three and a half years, and progression of diabetic retinopathy was determined to have occurred if the patient required laser surgery, a vitrectomy or if the patient advanced three levels in the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) Severity Scale.

Regular treatment of fenofibrate was supported by the study, reducing diabetic retinopathy by one third as long as the patient was taking fenofibrate regularly. Fenofibrate was approved as a treatment for diabetic retinopathy in Australia in 2013, but is not approved in Canada or the United States.

Full article: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2016/06/10/dc16-0024

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