Systemic and Genetic Risk Factors in Diabetic Retinopathy and Diabetic Macular Edema

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is an increasingly common health problem in our country as it is all over the world. DR is a leading cause of loss of vision patients at productive age. Current treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME) is distressing, expensive and not suitable for some patient subgroups. For this reason, the development and progression of DR and DME are affected by many systemic risk factors. It is important to increase the understanding of these responsible risk factors and develop preventive strategies. However, the presence of systemic risk factors is inadequate to predict the progression of the disease on an individual basis. It indicates the presence of a genetic effect. In this review, we have summarized the known systemic risk factors as well as the genetic basis of the disease under the light of genetic studies.