Diabetic Retinopathy Symptoms Classification Treatment

Diabetic retinopathy is one of long term complication of diabetes. Here is information about diabetes retinopathy Symptoms Treatment Prevention medicine classification stages grades and laser treatment

 Diabetic Retinopathy
Definition of Diabetic Retinopathy.
Diabetic eye disease is actually a group of eye problems that diabetic patients may face and all of these can lead to vision loss or blindness. These are common complications of diabetes and include the following diseases.

Diabetic retinopathy: retinal blood vessels are damaged.
Cataract: Lens of eyes get cloudy.
Glaucoma: Increase in intra-ocular pressure (Pressure inside eye) that may lead to optic nerve damage and blindness.

What are Stages of Diabetic Retinopathy?
This is the most common diabetic eye disease in World and a leading cause of blindness in American people. It is seen in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is actually disease of retinal blood vessels. Retina is the posterior layer of eye and is very light sensitive. Good vision requires healthy retina. In diabetic retinopathy, blood vessels swell and dilate, may leak fluid. Sometimes microaneurysms (Balloon like swelling) are seen in small blood vessels. Small blood vessels of retina may block and causes formation of new small vessels for nourishment of retina. This stage is called proliferative retinopathy. Proliferative retinopathy can develop without any symptoms and you are at high risk of vision loss. These new vessels are very fragile and thin, so they may leak blood in eye that may lead to vision loss or blindness. Sometimes we see macular edema aswell. Usually both eyes have these changes. Diabetic retinopathy can also be seen in pregnant diabetic women.

What can I do to protect my vision?
If you have diabetes, you should have a comprehensive dilated eye examination at least once a year. Your doctor will tell you that you have macular edema or any other stage of retinopathy. Early detection of this problem, treatment and appropriate follow-up care can prevent vision loss. Always try to control your blood glucose level under desired limits, it will slow onset and progression of retinopathy. By controlling elevated blood pressure and cholesterol can also reduce the risk of vision loss.

Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy:
Usually diabetic retinopathy has no symptoms, so do not wait for symptoms, just have your examination of eye once a year at-least if you have diabetes.If you have macular edema( Macula is part of retina that provides sharp central vision) you may have blurred vision. In proliferative retinopathy, you may see a few specks of blood or spots floating in your vision. Sometimes bleeding occurs and you develop blurred vision and blindness.

Detection and diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy:
Visual acuity test.  This test measures how well and accurate you see and read at various distances.
Dilated eye examination. Pupils are dilated with eye drops so more clear view is available for eye examination. Your eye is examined under special magnifying lens to see signs of diabetic retinopathy.
Eye Tonometry. Intraocular pressure is measured by this test to see sign of glaucoma.
If your doctor believes you need treatment for macular edema, he or she may suggest a fluorescein angiogram.A special dye is injected in body and afterwards Pictures are taken as the dye passes through the blood vessels in your retina. This test helps to rule out any leaking blood vessels.

Treatment of diabetic retinopathy:
During the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, no treatment is needed, unless you have macular edema. Rule of thumb is To prevent progression of diabetic retinopathy, people with diabetes should control their levels of blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol.

Treatment of choice for diabetic retinopathy is Laser therapy. In proliferative retinopathy, we use scatter laser treatment. This treatment shrinks the abnormal blood vessels. Usually two or more sessions are required to complete treatment as high number of burns have to be given. Scatter laser treatment may slightly decrease color vision and night vision but this treatment is very necessary to prevent your rest of sight. It is better to start laser treatment before bleeding occurs to get better results, if bleeding is excessive then laser treatment is not given, in that case we go for a procedure called Vitrectomy.In case of macular edema we use Focal laser treatment. Focal laser burns slow the leakage of blood vessels and decrease amount of fluid in retina. Usually treatment is completed within one session. If both eyes are affected then laser therapy is given to only one eye at a time, and another is treated several weeks apart. Focal laser treatment improves vision alot, and reduces risk of vision loss by 50 percent. Studies have shown that laser treatment can reduce 90% risk of blindness however it often can not restore vision that has already been lost.

Dr. Armughan Riaz M.B.B.S, Dip Card, author of this article Diabetic Retinopathy Symptoms Treament Classification and stages. Learn more about Diabetes Symptoms Cure Treatment by visiting our site http://www.diabetessymptomscure.com

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