Unilateral proliferative diabetic retinopathy. I. Initial findings

The combination of unilateral proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) in one eye and nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) in the fellow eye was observed in 10.1% of patients with PDR. Most patients were between the ages of 50 and 70 years; the majority had adultonset diabetes mellitus. Unilateral aphakia and anisometropia of greater than 1 diopter were both infrequently seen. The incidence of glaucoma was unremarkable. Unilateral elevated-but not necessarily abnormal-intraocular pressure was found in a significantly larger proportion of eyes with NPDR (20%) than with PDR (12%). Most patients had moderate to severe angiopathy or exudation in the eye with NPDR and modest PDR in the fellow eye; however, one third had moderate to severe PDR. In only 2% of the patients was visual acuity less than 20/200 on initial examination.