Diabetic retinopathy as a predictor of late clinical events following percutaneous coronary intervention

Diabetic retinopathy has been shown to be associated with increased cardiovascular mortality in diabetes mellitus (DM) patients. However, it is not well known whether the presence of retinopathy is a predictor of adverse cardiovascular events in diabetic patients after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We divided 365 non-insulin dependent DM patients who underwent PCI and fundoscopic examination into 2 groups: 115 patients with retinopathy and 250 patients without retinopathy. We assessed the relationship between the presence of retinopathy and the occurrence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) including death, myocardial infarction (MI), cerebrovascular event and target lesion revascularization (TLR). Patients with retinopathy had longer duration of DM and more insulin dependency. The 2-year cumulative survival rate was 96.3% and 99.6% for patients with retinopathy and without retinopathy, respectively (p = 0.02). The 2-year MACCE-free survival rates were similar between the 2 groups (67.7% and 73.8% in patients with retinopathy and without retinopathy, respectively, p = 0.17). In conclusion, the presence of retinopathy might be a predictor of mortality after PCI in DM patients; however, it might not be related to the development of other major cardiac and cerebrovascular events.