Background: Patients with type 2 diabetes are prone to the asymptomatic obstructive coronary artery disease (AO-CAD). The association of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) with AO-CAD is unknown. The aim of the study is to explore the specific relationship of PDR with AO-CAD. Methods: We performed coronary angiography and retinal photographs in 1332 participants with unknown CAD status in a retrospective discovery set and 252 patients with non-CAD enrolled in a prospective validation cohort. Main outcome measures are prediction of PDR to AO-CAD. Results: In the case-control retrospective discovery set, investigation included 211 nondiabetic retinopathy (NDR) and 140 PDR. Individuals with PDR had a 2.16 times higher risk of AO-CAD compared with individuals without diabetic retinopathy (P < 0.01). Relative risk between individuals with PDR and the risk of AO-CAD varied by different adjusted covariates, 2.53 (1.48-4.32) by age and gender; 2.16 (1.10-4.31) by additionally other covariates. In the prospective validation set, after adjustment for covariates, the cumulative risk of AO-CAD was significantly higher in the PDR group compared with NDR group, followed up for a median of 4.3 years (hazard ratio = 3.07, 95% confidence interval 1.81-5.21, P < 0.001). Conclusions: PDR showed superior identification performance over traditional risk factors in screening for AO-CAD. PDR may predict persons at high risk of AO-CAD.
Keywords: asymptomatic obstructive coronary artery disease; diabetes; proliferative diabetic retinopathy.