The study was for the investigation of the association between bacterial infections and DR.
1043 adult individuals with type 1 diabetes were recruited in this prospective follow-up study.
413 individuals with incident SDR had a higher mean number of antibiotic purchases/follow-up year compared with individuals without incident SDR (n=630) (0.92 [95% CI 0.82 to 1.02] vs 0.67 [0.62–0.73], p=0.02), as well as higher levels of LPS activity (0.61 [0.58–0.65] vs 0.56 [0.54–0.59] EU/mL, p=0.03). Individuals with on average ≥1 purchase per follow-up year (n=269) had 1.5 times higher cumulative incidence of SDR, compared with individuals with <1 purchase (n=774) per follow-up year (52% vs 35%, p<0.001). In multivariable Cox survival models, the mean number of antibiotic purchases per follow-up year as well as LPS activity were risk factors for SDR after adjusting for static confounders (HR 1.16 [1.05–1.27], p=0.002 and HR 2.77 [1.92–3.99], p<0.001, respectively).
The study concluded that the bacterial infections are associated with an increased risk of incident SDR in type 1 diabetes.
Reference: https://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2020/09/14/bjophthalmol-2020-316202
