THE RELATION BETWEEN MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY AND DIABETIC RETINOPATHY

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem. It is complicated by numerous vascular diseases. Most commonly it affects the blood vessels of the retina and cause diabetic retinopathy, which is considered as the leading cause of blindness among adults aged 25- 74 years (Emmanule et al, 1997). The exact nature of diabetic retinopathy is unknown, however recent reports suggest that, magnesium deficiency is involved in its pathogenesis (White et al, 1993).

The present work is a case-control study. The aim of this work was to study the relation between magnesium deficiency and diabetic retinopathy, to study other risk factors for diabetic retinopathy and to fmd out the relation between magnesium deficiency and other vascular complications among diabetics.

To accomplish this aim a case-control study was carried out in ophthalmologic department of Ain Shams university hospital. This study included three groups. The first group included 30 cases of diabetes mellitus with defmite diabetic