To investigate the clinical analysis of newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus (NDM) patients with abnormal fundus examination at the first visit.

This retrospective study utilized the first visit medical records of 15 patients (30 eyes) who were diagnosed with NDM from February 2011 to October 2016.

Patients were divided into 3 groups: 1) diabetic retinopathy group including proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) (3) and severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) (1); 2) retinal vascular disease group including central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) (1), branch retinal vein occlusion (1), vitreous hemorrhage with CRVO (1) and macular edema (1); and 3) other retinal disease group including vitreous hemorrhage due to choroidal neovascular rupture (1), exudative age-related macular degeneration (3), central serous chorioretinopathy (2), and macular hole (1). All 3 PDR patients had latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (type 1.5 diabetes). The remaining 12 patients had type 2 diabetes. Three patients showed mild NPDR in the opposite eye and the other 9 patients did not have diabetic retinopathy in the opposite eye. Onset age, HbA1C and proteinuria were significantly different between the diabetic retinopathy group and the other retinal disease group ( p = 0.006, p = 0.012 and p = 0.006, Mann-Whitney test).

In patients with various retinal diseases, early detection of NDM could be achieved by performing fundoscopic imaging and systemic examination as well as basic ophthalmologic examination. In addition, patients with diabetic retinopathy should be treated promptly through ophthalmology and internal medicine consultation. For the retinal vascular disease and other retinal disease groups, not only treatment for ophthalmic diseases, but also education about diabetes treatment are important.