[The characteristics of the course of diabetic retinopathy in myopia]

A total of 220 diabetics (428 eyes) aged 16 to 79, 144 females and 76 males, have been examined to define the incidence rate and the clinical manifestations of diabetic involvement of the retina. There were 88 eyes with myopia, 142 with hypermetropia, and 198 with emmetropia. Diabetic changes of the retina were detected in 40.9% of myopic refraction cases, in 65.2% of emmetropia and in 70.4% of hypermetropia cases. The severity of the involvement was lesser in myopia than in other types of refraction. In medium-severity myopia no proliferative stages of diabetic retinopathy were observed, and in high myopia (10 eyes) no diabetic involvements of the fundus oculi were revealed. In anisometropia diabetic symptoms on the myopic side were either absent or poorly manifest. These findings point to the role of intraocular status in the pathogenesis of diabetic involvement of the retina and their progress.