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Objective: To evaluate the effects of oral contraceptives (OCs) as a possible risk factor for early diabetic renal and/or retinal complications.Design: A retrospective case-control study.Setting: A university hospital diabetes clinic.Participants: Forty-three diabetic women who used OCs for 1 year or longer (mean, 3.4 years; range, 1.0 to 7.0 years) were compared with a computer-matched control group of 43 diabetic women who never used OCs.Main Outcome Measures: Hemoglobin A1c levels, albumin excretion rates, and mean retinopathy scores.Results: The mean +/- SEM age and duration of diabetes were 22.7 +/- 0.5 years (range, 17.1 to 30.5 years) and 13.8 +/- 0.8 years, respectively, for the study group. The mean longitudinal hemoglobin A1c values were similar for study subjects and control subjects. The final mean albumin excretion rates, reflecting diabetic renal damage, and the mean eye grades were not significantly different between the groups.Conclusions: The use of OCs among young women with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus does not pose an additional risk for the development of early diabetic retinopathy and/or nephropathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two hundred thirty subjects with insulin-dependent diabetes were followed up longitudinally by measuring glycohemoglobin values to relate glucose control with renal and retinal complications. Subjects with long-term poor control (glycohemoglobin values greater than 1.5 times the upper limit of normal) had 3.6 times the prevalence of microalbuminuria and 2.5 times the prevalence of level 3 to 6 retinopathy than that found in subjects with long-term good control (glycohemoglobin values within 1.33 times the upper limit of normal). Variables related to kidney damage were glucose control and, to a lesser degree, duration of diabetes. Variables related to eye disease were, in descending order of significance, duration of diabetes, glucose control, and age. No subject whose mean glycohemoglobin value was consistently within 1.1 times the upper limit of normal had retinopathy or microalbuminuria. In contrast, when the mean glycohemoglobin value was more than 1.5 times the upper limit of normal, 24 (29%) of 82 subjects had microalbuminuria and 30 (37%) of 82 had level 3 to 6 retinopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vitreous fluorophotometry was performed on 240 eyes of 120 young subjects who had insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type I) and various grades of retinopathy. The concentration of fluorescein was measured in the anterior chamber and posterior vitreous 1 hour after intravenous injection of fluorescein. There was a significant association (P less than .001) between the grade of retinopathy and the level of posterior vitreous leakage. The amount of posterior vitreous leakage in each eye also had a significant association with borderline elevation of diastolic blood pressure. Subjects with excessive posterior vitreous leakage had significantly higher levels of urinary microalbumin excretion. In a multiple linear regression analysis for posterior vitreous leakage, retinal grade consistently entered the model at a significant level (P less than or equal to .00001 to .003). Blood pressure also entered the model for posterior vitreous leakage at a significant level for retinal grades of the right and left eyes and of the worst eye. These results demonstrate an association between leakage of retinal and renal vessels, possibly linked at least in part to elevation in diastolic blood pressure.