Hypertension coexisted with diabetes, can worst the vascular complications. Very few of the studies have been done to establish the correlation between diabetes and hypertension in our population. So the aim of current project was to find out the association between development of diabetic retinopathy and hypertension in our population. A case control study was conducted in the department of internal medicine, Shahida Islam Medical College. Fasting blood sugar, random blood sugar and HbA1C were tested. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure were recorded. Patients were screened for diabetic retinopathy by dilating the pupils with homatropine drops then examination by ophthalmoscope. Data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version-20. The mean age of participants in Group A (with diabetic retinopathy) was 55.4 ± 11.1 years while in Group B (without diabetic retinopathy) was 51.9 ± 9.3 years. An increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure was noted among patients with diabetic retinopathy, recorded as 160.5 ± 17.1 mmHg and 89.3 ± 8.4 mmHg respectively with a strong significant association. About 40% of diabetic patients were hypertensive as well. The combined effect of systolic blood pressure and HbA1C were more likely to develop diabetic retinopathy with significant p-values and odd ratios. Current study found a strong positive correlation between diabetic retinopathy and hypertension.

Index Terms- Diabetes mellitus, Hypertension, Retinopathy, Vascular complication