Author Interviews, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Ophthalmology / 15.01.2014
Type 1 Diabetes: Retinopathy and Cerebral Microbleeds
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Eelco van Duinkerken
Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, Amsterdama
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: In our study we assessed the relationship between cerebral small vessel disease and peripheral microvascular function in type 1 diabetes patients. By MRI cerebral small vessel disease was assessed as white matter hyperintensities and lacunar infarcts (markers of ischemia) and cerebral microbleeds (expression of vascular leakage). We hypothesized that subgroups, i.e. those with (proliferative) retinopathy, are more at risk to develop cerebral small vessels disease. To this end, we selected type 1 diabetes patients with proliferative retinopathy, type 1 diabetes patients without microvascular complications and healthy controls. The main finding of our study was that only cerebral microbleeds, but not ischemic markers of cerebral small vessel disease were more prevalent in type 1 diabetes patients with proliferative retinopathy relative to the other groups. Cerebral microbleeds were also related to microvascular function in skin. This suggest that cerebral microbleeds are part of generalized microangiopathy in patients with type 1 diabetes.






















