Associations between blood pressure levels and diabetic retinopathy in patients with diabetes mellitus: A population-based study

Purpose: To evaluate the associations of blood pressure levels with diabetic retinopathy (DR), proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and diabetic macular edema (DME) in patients with diabetes mellitus. Design: A cross-sectional, population-based study. Subjects: A total of 152,844 patients with diabetes from 90 major cities in 19 provincial regions of mainland China during 2018–2021 were finally recruited. Methods: Blood pressure was graded into 5 levels: normal (without hypertension and 120/80 mmHg in both patients with and without hypertension. A nomogram was developed for DR prediction based on blood pressure levels.