by Ben Tang

Created on: July 29, 2010

Recent finding from a landmark study involving more than ten thousand diabetic patients brings good news for sufferers of diabetes.

Vision Loss & Diabetes

Diabetic patients are at risk of developing vision loss due to uncontrolled sugar (glucose) levels in the blood. This leads to a condition called Diabetic Rretinopathy in which blood vessels in the retinal tissue are damaged.

Retinal tissue is the area where image is processed by the eye. In diabetic retinopathy, blood vessels can leak and cause swelling in the retina and some cases abnormal new blood vessels can grow. Patients in any of these conditions will experience vision loss.

The Study

ACCORD study analyzed 10,251 diabetic patients outcome on the treatment options as described. The length of the study was 4 years and the data will help medical doctors decide the best option for diabetic patients.

Doctors have long fought battles of good glucose control in patients and the findings of this ACCORD Eye Study further supports the reason for doing so. ACCORD stands for Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD)  and is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The study finding was presented at the 70th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association on June 29, 2010 and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).(http://www.accordtrial.org/web/public/index.cfm )

 This study compared 3 intensive treatment options for diabetic patients in arresting the development of vision loss

 *First option was an intensive control of blood glucose level to normal levels 

 *Second option was intensive control of blood pressure to normal levels

 *Third option was the use of medications that lowers cholesterol and triglyceride level. The medications used are simvastatin and fenofibrate. Simvastatin is a cholesterol lowering agent that reduces LDL  ( bad cholesterol) and to a small extent increase HDL ( good cholesterol) . Fenofibrate is a triglyceride lowering agent that also increase HDL.

The Results

First and third option showed promising results in preventing vision loss in diabetic patients.

Patients who are given intensive control of blood glucose experience a risk reduction in developing diabetic retinopathy by 33% compared to patients who are not on this treatment.

Coincidentally patients who are prescribed medications such as simvastatin and fenofibrate showed a similar risk  reduction by 33%.

However, intensive blood pressure control provided no risk reduction to patients compared with standard blood pressure control.

Conclusion

This study was heralded as a medical breakthrough due to the significant results it brought. There were no previous study that show that combination of fenofibrate and simvastatin or intensive blood glucose control reduces diabetic retinopathy progression.

With the publication of this study, doctors will have more conviction to control blood glucose  better and further justifies the prescription of medications to control cholesterol.

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