Background: This study was carried out in order to evaluate the relationship between retinopathy and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT).
Materials and methods: In a cross-sectional study, 154 diabetic patients who had a history of diabetic disease were evaluated in two equal groups of 77 patients with and without retinopathy, respectively. CIMT was evaluated in all of the patients.
Results: Mean age of the patients was 59.65 ± 9.37 years. Mean CIMT of all patients was 0.84 ± 0.18. CIMT of patients with retinopathy was significantly greater than patients without retinopathy (P < 0.001). CIMT also correlated with age, duration of diabetes, systolic blood pressure, blood urea nitrogen, and serum creatinine.
Conclusion: CIMT may be used as a simple, available and noninvasive method for screening of macro and microvascular complication of diabetic patients.
Keywords: Common carotid artery; diabetic retinopathy; intima-media thickness; sonography.