<b>Objective:</b>
<p>The objective of this study was <a>to assess the long-term role of intensive glycemic control
(INT) on accumulated eye procedures in patients with advanced diabetes compared
with those receiving standard glycemic control (STD).</a></p>
<p><b>Research design and Methodology:</b></p>
<p>We
compared the effect of treatment assignment on the accumulated number of eye
procedures during the intervention period of Veteran Affairs Diabetes Trial
(VADT) (2000-2008), median follow-up of
5.6 years), the interim VADT-Follow-up (2000-2013) and the full 17 years
of VADT follow-up (2000-2017). We further analyzed data using various cardiovascular
markers in 2 models; model I included total
cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), LDL -cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides,
systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and BMI. Model II included the above
covariates plus age and DR severity scores at baseline of the original trial. </p><p><b>Results:</b></p>
<p>The
final analysis of the data (detailed in Results section) showed a mild but nonsignificant
increase in number of procedures, retinal or retinal plus cataract surgery
during the three periods of the study (Table 3,4).</p>
<p><b>Conclusions:</b></p>
<p>We
found no significant benefit of INT during the original trial period in eye
related procedures such as various procedures for DR and cataract surgery during
the 17 years follow up. Yet, after adjusting data for some known vascular
markers, the increase in number of eye procedures in INT becomes more prevalent.
This finding indicates that INT might not
have a protective role on events that requires surgery in individual with
advance DM.</p>