In this study, we compared the risk of cardiovascular complications between diabetic retinopathy (DR) groups based on the Framingham Risk Score.

Subjects 40 years of age or older were enrolled in the present study from September 2008 to September 2009. Five scales were used to evaluate the severity of DR for the most severely affected eye in each patient: no DR, mild nonproliferative DR (NPDR), moderate NPDR, severe NPDR and proliferative DR (PDR). The first group included no DR patients and the second group included mild NPDR patients. The third group included moderate NPDR, severe NPDR and PDR patients. The Framingham Risk Score was analyzed among the groups to determine whether a difference in score existed.

DR was found in 126 subjects. The first group included 403 subjects, the second group 22 subjects and the third group 104 subjects. The average Framingham Risk Score that appeared with increasing severity of DR was 10.89 ± 7.98 in the first group, 12.25 ± 10.84 in the second group and 13.25 ± 10.66 in the third group. The average difference between the first and third groups was statistically significant ( p = 0.014).

In our study, the Framingham Risk Score increased significantly with more severe DR ( p = 0.042). Our results are useful when considering the easily accessible identification of DR and that cardiovascular disease is one of the main causes of death worldwide. However, confirming the exact causal relationship based on our results is difficult because the study design was cross-sectional and additional studies are necessary.