Cigarette smoking and diabetic retinopathy.

A sample of 181 diabetics with diabetic retinopathy was statistically investigated with regard to association of smoking with proliferative retinopathy. The numbers of patients with proliferative retinopathy rose with increasing tobacco consumption. In non-smokers no association existed between diabetes duration and proliferative retinopathy, but in smokers the number with proliferative retinopathy rose with increasing diabetes duration.