[Factors determining the presence and predicting the development of diabetic retinopathy]

In a group of 329 diabetics aged 35-56 years with diabetes duration 1-30 years 134 cases were found diabetic retinopathy (40.7%). After 7 years funduscopy was repeated in 136 out of 248 patients and 50 new cases of retinopathy were disclosed. After multivariate analysis it was found that retinopathy was associated most closely with diabetes duration, while arterial hypertension was most surely predicting during 7 years future retinopathy, particularly in the case of higher level of glycosylated haemoglobin at the final examination.