Correlation between Retinal Vessel Calibre and Neurodegeneration in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the European Consortium for the Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy (EUROCONDOR)

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Somatostatin in the context of diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

To investigate the correlation between retinal vessel calibre and measurements of neurodegeneration in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and no or early diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 440 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Baseline data on 440 patients with T2D from the EUROCONDOR clinical trial were used.

DR was graded according to the Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) scale, and patients with ETDRS levels 10-35 were included.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Somatostatin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Retinal vessel diameters were measured by semi-automatic software.

Calibres were summarized into central retinal artery and vein equivalents (CRAE and CRVE).

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Adrenergic alpha-2 Receptor Agonists, Brimonidine Tartrate, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diabetic Retinopathy, Electroretinography, Hormones and Jupiter.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Somatostatin in 440 patients in people with diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2016 (Ophthalmic research), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the Somatostatin compound page, Diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma research.