Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic Retinopathy Defined

What is diabetic eye disease?

Diabetic eye disease mentions to a assembly of eye difficulties that persons with diabetes may face as a difficulty of diabetes. All can origin critical dream decrease or even blindness.

Diabetic eye disease may include:

Diabetic retinopathy—damage to the body-fluid vessels in the retina.

Cataract—clouding of the eye's lens. Cataracts evolve at an previous age in persons with diabetes.

Glaucoma—increase in fluid force interior the eye that directs to optic cheek impairment and decrease of vision. A individual with diabetes is almost two times as probable to get glaucoma as other adults (Wahren 2007).

What is diabetic retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy is the most widespread diabetic eye disease and a premier origin of blindness in American adults. It is initiated by alterations in the body-fluid vessels of the retina.

In some persons with diabetic retinopathy, body-fluid vessels may enlarge and leak fluid. In other persons, abnormal new body-fluid vessels augment on the exterior of the retina. The retina is the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. A wholesome retina is essential for good vision.

 

What are the phases of diabetic retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy has four stages:

Mild Nonproliferative Retinopathy. At this soonest stage, microaneurysms occur. They are little localities of balloon-like enlarging in the retina's minute body-fluid vessels.

Moderate Nonproliferative Retinopathy. As the disease progresses, some body-fluid vessels that nourish the retina are blocked.

Severe Nonproliferative Retinopathy. Many more body-fluid vessels are impeded, depriving some localities of the retina with their body-fluid supply. These localities of the retina drive pointers to the body to augment new body-fluid vessels for nourishment.

Proliferative Retinopathy. At this sophisticated stage, the pointers dispatched by the retina for nourishment initiate the development of new body-fluid vessels. This status is called proliferative retinopathy. These new body-fluid vessels are abnormal and fragile. They augment along the retina and along the exterior of the clear, vitreous gel that loads up the interior of the eye. By themselves, these body-fluid vessels manage not origin symptoms or dream loss. However, they have slim, fragile walls. If they leak body-fluid, critical dream decrease and even blindness can result. (Pardianto 2005)

 

Causes and Risk Factors

How does diabetic retinopathy origin dream loss?

Blood vessels impaired from diabetic retinopathy can origin dream decrease in two ways:

1. Fragile, abnormal body-fluid vessels can evolve and leak body-fluid into the center of the eye, distorting vision. This is proliferative retinopathy and is the fourth and most sophisticated stage of the disease.

2. Fluid can leak into the center of the macula, the part of the eye where pointed, straight-ahead dream occurs. The fluid makes the macula enlarge, distorting vision. This status is called macular edema. It can happen at any stage of diabetic retinopathy, whereas it is more probable to happen as the disease progresses. About half of the persons with proliferative retinopathy furthermore have macular edema.

Normal Vision and the identical view examined by a individual with diabetic retinopathy. (Tapp 2003)

 

Normal vision

Same view examined by a individual with diabetic retinopathy

 

Who is at risk for diabetic retinopathy?

All persons ...