Could Treating Dyslipidemia Prevent Diabetic Macular Edema?
While patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) tend to have elevated serum lipids, a recent study found that lipid-lowering drugs may not decrease the disease’s severity.
In the past, dyslipidemia has been considered a risk factor for the development of vision impairment from diabetic macular edema.
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In order to further examine the relationship between these 2 conditions, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of randomized control trials and case-control, cohort, and cross-sectional studies.
The analysis demonstrated that average total serum cholesterol (TC) levels, serum triglycerides (TGs), and low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) were higher in patients with DME compared to those without the condition (TC: 30.08;LDL: 18.62;TG: 24.82), but there was no significant difference in the severity of DME between patients undergoing lipid-lowering treatment and those given placebo.
“Despite evidence from the cohort studies and meta-analysis of the case-control studies suggesting a strong relationship between lipid levels and DME, this was not confirmed by the meta-analysis that included only prospective RCTs,” explained the study’s authors.
“Therefore, given the significant public health relevance of the topic, the relationship between lipid levels and DME deserves further investigation,” they concluded.
The complete study is published in the July issue of Ophthalmology.
-Michelle Canales Butcher
Reference:
Das R, Kerr R, Chakravarthy U, Hogg RE. Dyslipidemia and diabetic macular edema. Opthalmol. 2015 July [epub ahead of print] doi: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2015.05.011.