Author Name: Morgan E

Category Name: Medical Sciences

Description: Signs and Symptoms in Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy often has no early warning signs. Even macular edema, which can cause rapid vision loss, may not have any warning signs for some time. In general, however, a person with macular edema is likely to have blurred vision, making it hard to do things like read or drive. In some cases, the vision will get better or worse during the day.

The first stage, called non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), has no symptoms. Patients may not notice the signs and have 20/20 vision. The only way to detect NPDR is by fundus examination by direct or indirect ophthalmoscope by a trained ophthalmologist, fundus photography can be used for objective documentation of the fundus findings, in which microaneurysms (microscopic blood-filled bulges in the artery walls) can be seen. If there is reduced vision, fluorescein angiography can show narrowing or blocked retinal blood vessels clearly (lack of blood flow or retinal ischemia).

Macular edema, in which blood vessels leak their contents into the macular region, can occur at any stage of NPDR. Its symptoms are blurred vision and darkened or distorted images that are not the same in both eyes. Ten percent (10%) of diabetic patients will have vision loss related to macular edema. Optical Coherence Tomography can show areas of retinal thickening due to fluid accumulation from macular edema.

In the second stage, abnormal new blood vessels (neovascularisation) form at the back of the eye as part of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR); these can burst and bleed (vitreous hemorrhage) and blur the vision, because these new blood vessels are fragile. The first time this bleeding occurs, it may not be very severe. In most cases, it will leave just a few specks of blood, or spots floating in a person's visual field which may last for months.

These spots are often followed within a few days or weeks by a much greater leakage of blood, which blurs the vision. In extreme cases, a person may only be able to tell light from dark in that eye. It may take the blood anywhere from a few days to months or even years to clear from the inside of the eye, and in some cases the blood will not clear. These types of large hemorrhages tend to happen more than once.

Journal of Clinical Diabetes is a peer-reviewed journal that aims to publish research dealing with Diabetes research such as: Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes, Diabetic Nephropathy and retinopathy, Gestational Diabetes and covers all aspects of diabetes technology including: insulin and metabolic peptide delivery, glucose monitoring, Prediabetes, Latent autoimmune diabetes of adults etc.

Submit manuscript at   https://www.scholarscentral.org/submissions/clinical-diabetes.html

or send as an e-mail attachment to the Editorial Office at clindiabetes@eclinicalsci.com

Regards,
Morgan E,
Editiorial Manager,
Journal of Clinical Diabetes.

E-mail: clindiabetes@eclinicalsci.com