Proliferative retinopathy in patients with type 1 diabetes of less than 5 years' duration

The position statement about diabetic retinopathy postulates that at least 3-5 years of duration of diabetes are needed for the retinopathy to occur, and initial retinal examination should be performed within 3-5 years after the initial diagnosis. We report here the case of a 18 year-old type 1 diabetic woman with a proliferative retinopathy discovered 2 years after the onset of a clinical diabetes. The hypothesis of a Latent Autoimmun Diabetes in Adults (LADA) could not be excluded and we propose, particularly in this context, to detect a diabetic retinopathy at the onset of diabetes.