Diabetic retinopathy threatment

Diabetes brings lots of complications and one of the most common is the diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy happens in the case of the people who suffer from Type II diabetes and it manifests through a slowly loss of vision, which in the end can result to blindness. There have been some progresses made from this point of view, as there have been found two ways of slowing down this process. The first one is the intensive blood sugar control which proved to be much more effective in reducing the occurrence of diabetic retinopathy then the normal blood sugar control. Another way in which the researchers have found a way of slowing down this process is by combining the lipid therapy with fibrate and statin. This method proves to be much more successful than the one which uses only the statin.

The intensive blood sugar control proved to be effective only from this point of view, as it did not bring any other benefits besides the ones mentioned, in comparison with the standard sugar control. Emily Chew, who is an M.D of the Eye Study and chief of the Clinical Trials Branch of the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications at the National Eye Institute stated that the researches which were performed by the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) proved that there is a big difference between the regular and intensive blood sugar control when it case to delaying the effects of the diabetic retinopathy.

The research also proved that the satin therapy combined with the fibrate treatment proved to be much safer for the people who were involved in the tests. The problem is that the intensive blood sugar control can be very dangerous. The patients can not use this method without consulting with their doctors, because this method lowers the blood sugar, until it reaches critical levels. Emily mentioned that this is a risk which the patients and the doctors have to take if they want to go on with the process.

The Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes study had 10,251 volunteers which were in pretty bad health shape, as many of them had were in high risk for heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death. They used three different strategies besides the regular treatment which is used today in order to lower the cardiovascular diseases which occur in many cases because of the diabetes.

The doctors used a combination of techniques in order to find out which one is the most effective. For some patients they controlled the blood sugar to normal levels, in the case of other patients they controlled the blood pressure, and in the case of other patients they used a combination of fenofibrate and simvastatin. These two medications lower the “bad lipids” and raise the level of the good ones.

The research took place over the course of four years, and it involved 2,856 participants. These participants were split into three groups, and each group received one of the mentioned treatment methods. In order to identify the evolution of the diabetic retinopathy, the doctors analyzed the blood vessels of the eyes. In the case of the diabetic retinopathy, the blood vessels are the ones which get damaged as a result of the high blood sugar levels.

In most of the cases the blood vessels start to leak which will cause the retina to swell. There are also cases when abnormal blood vessels will begin to develop which will result in the end to a loss of vision. In the case of the people with diabetes, the doctor should constantly verify the status of the blood vessels, because in many cases surgery can be performed in order to delay the apparition or the effects of the diabetic retinopathy.

The intensive blood sugar control will delay the apparition of the diabetic retinopathy by one third in four years. The people who used the regular blood sugar control method had a sugar level of 7.5 percent hemoglobin, whereas the people who used the intensive method had a sugar level of 6.4 percent hemoglobin. A level of 6.4 percent hemoglobin is very close to the levels which can be found in the case of the people who do not suffer from diabetes.

The intensive blood sugar control seemed to very efficient in the case of the people who suffered from type I diabetes and in the case of the ones who were recently discovered with type II diabetes. However it has been discovered that the treatment is effective in the case of people who have had type II diabetes up to 10 years as well. The combination of lipid therapy with fenofibrate and simvastatin reduces the effects of the disease with one third as well.

In the case of the people who used an intensive blood pressure method there was no difference; in their case the diabetic retinopathy advanced as usual. The treatments proved to be effective from this point of view, but they did not cause any change when it came to the risks of cardiovascular deaths, heart attacks, and strokes. In fact the people who used the intensive blood sugar control method had a higher risk of suffering from one of those conditions than the ones who used the normal blood sugar methods.

This is the main reason why the research was stopped prior to the original deadline; the fact that the patients from the intensive blood sugar control group were in high danger of suffering strokes, or getting any other cardiovascular disease. The main thing which the doctors want to find out now is whether they can use the intensive blood sugar control method in order to reduce the risks of getting a cardiovascular disease. In the case of the eyes, the treatment reduced the size of the blood vessels, and they are hoping that they could do the same thing with the vessels from the hearth. However they have mentioned that these work only with an active lifestyle and controlled diet.