The Association of Sickle-Cell Disorders With Diabetic Retinopathy: A Large Database Study

Purpose

To evaluate the association of sickle-cell disease (SCD) and sickle-cell trait (SCT) disease with diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM).

Design

Population-based, retrospective cohort study utilizing data from the TriNetX Research Network, including 119 million patients across 80 health care organizations worldwide.

Participants

Diabetes mellitus patients (type 1 [T1DM] or 2 [T2DM]), with or without SCD and SCT, were included. Three cohorts were analyzed, including (1) DM patients without SCD, SCT, or sickle-cell/hemoglobin-C; (2) DM with SCD; and (3) DM with SCT.

Methods

All patients with DM were categorized into 3 cohorts based on the presence of SCD and SCT. Each cohort underwent 1:1 propensity score matching for demographics, blood glucose levels, hemoglobin A1C, and other relevant comorbidities.

Main Outcome Measures

Risk of DR in DM patients with and without SCD or SCT.

Results

There was no significant difference in the risk of any T1DR between those with and without SCD. However, for those with SCT, there was a notable twofold increased risk for T1-proliferative DR (PDR) (relative risk [RR]: 2.03; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.33–3.01). In contrast, there was an elevated risk for any T2DR in patients with SCD (RR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.19–1.88), particularly due to higher PDR risks in T2DM patients (RR: 1.83; 95% CI: 1.29–2.60). The risk of mild to moderate T2DM non-PDR was also found to be higher in patients with SCT.

Conclusions

The risk of any DR was increased in T2DM patients with SCD or SCT, with increased risks for PDR in patients with SCT and T1DM. This indicates there may be a potential role of sickle-cell disorders in diabetic eye disease progression.

Financial Disclosure(s)

Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.