To evaluate the factors that are significant in progression to neovascular glaucoma in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

In this retrospective analysis, we reviewed the medical records of 52 patients who were first diagnosed with proliferative diabetic retinopathy from March 2014 to March 2016. We compared diabetes mellitus period, HbA1c, chronic diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and kidney disease, insulin treatments, blood urea nitrogen, blood creatinine, glomerular filtration rate, urine albumin, dialysis, corrected visual acuity at the first visit, traction membrane sign of the retina at the first visit, vitreous hemorrhage and preretinal hemorrhage in each group and then investigated the prognostic factors of neovascular glaucoma.

A total of 52 patients were included in the investigation, 12 patients (23.08%) were diagnosed with iris neovascularization and 4 patients (7.69%) developed neovascular glaucoma. The patients without iris neovascularization were defined as Group I, those with iris neovascularization as Group II, and those with neovascular glaucoma as Group III. The diabetes mellitus period was significantly longer in Group II (10.88 ± 7.14 years) and in Group III (11.75 ± 8.61 years) than Group I (8.30 ± 5.25 years) ( p -value 0.41, 0.032, respectively). The HbA1c level was 9.59 ± 2.23 in Group II and 9.27 ± 2.54 in Group I. There was no significant difference between the two groups ( p = 0.721). However, HbA1c was significantly higher in Group III (11.55 ± 0.21) than Group I ( p -value 0.048).

A long diabetes mellitus period and high HbA1c level have a significant effect on the progression to neovascular glaucoma in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. This information could be useful for predicting and preventing the prognosis of patients.