United States: Diabetes, a chronic ailment, brings several health complications, and one of them is eyesight problems attributed to retinal damage, reveals the health experts.
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According to Dr. J. Michael Jumper, president of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS), “Diabetes can silently damage a person’s most precious sense, their sight before symptoms even appear. That’s why everyone with diabetes should focus on their eyesight and receive regular dilated eye exams,” US News reported.
But there have been great strides in the diagnosis of and intervention in diabetic retinopathy, said Jumper in an ASRS news release.
“Losing sight from diabetes-related eye disease is not a foregone conclusion,” Jumper added.
“There is hope, including advances in early detection and treatment spearheaded by retina specialists, that can help people with diabetes enjoy healthy vision for a lifetime,” he continued.
Diabetes’s impact on the eyes
The ASRS is urging the diabetics to understand their diabetes condition impact level on their eyes.
Diabetes now affects forty million people in the United States, and almost half of these people will experience some form of diabetic retinopathy.
In that condition, it adversely affects the retina blood vessels of the affected individual.
There are certain factors raising the risk of a diabetic person developing diabetic retinopathy, which include:
- Poor control of blood sugar levels
- High blood pressure
- Kidney disease
- Elevated cholesterol
- Pregnancy
The ASRS says that most with diabetic retinopathy might not even know that they have the disease for years. Unfortunately, in most cases, when people start experiencing symptoms, vision impairment occurs rather severely. Symptoms can include:
- Blurred or distorted vision
- Difficulty reading
- Spots or “floaters” in vision
- A blur in front of the eye or across the area of the field is seen.
- Eye pressure
- Difficulty in distinguishing between the different hues of colors.
- Blurred or double vision
The ASRS mentions that dilated eye exams are useful in the detection of diabetic retinopathy since they enable a better view of the retinal tissue.
There also are many technologies that are used by ophthalmologists to monitor retinal conditions, many of which are highly developed, US News reported.
With the availability of several advanced technologies that are used by ophthalmologists in order to have a sight of retinal health.
- Optical coherence tomography, which produces high-resolution images of the retinal cross-section
- Fundus photography, that is the photographs taken to document diabetic retinopathy
- Fluorescein angiography is where a dye is introduced into the veins of the eye, particularly in the retina, but to the whole eye in general.
The newer formulations of these drugs mean people have to get fewer injections annually, according to the ASRS.