Fluorescein angiography in borderline diabetics.

Fluorescein angiography was performed in twenty three men with impaired oral glucose tolerance (borderline diabetics) and sixteen matched, normoglycaemic controls. Retinal abnormalities (microaneurysms and leakage of dye) were observed in 18.7% of the controls, 41.6% of sustained borderline diabetics and 54.4% of initially borderline diabetics who subsequently "worsened to diabetes". Qualitatively the abnormalities were similar in each group. Although the difference in frequency between the sustained borderline diabetics and the controls does not achieve conventional statistical significance, other studies quoted support the conclusion that moderate impairment of glucose tolerance is associated with a raised frequency of minor retinal abnormalities. The significance of these remains to be determined.