Diabetic retinopathy signs and treatments

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The American Academy of Ophthalmology has ever claimed that diabetic people are 25 times more likely to lose vision than normal individuals. However, there are less serious eye diseases that are also caused by diabetes, such as diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. It is widely known that diabetic patients can not use and store sugar in a normal way, resulting in high blood sugar. This condition may damage the blood vessels and diabetic retinopathy will be caused. More seriously, scar tissue can be caused and leads to retinal detachment. Vision problems caused by can not be adjusted by wearing eyeglasses.

External symptoms of mild and advanced diabetic retinopathy include floaters and double vision. If you have difficulty in reading, there is probably macular edema from fluid built-up in the macula. Double vision is caused by the affection of eye nerves. For precise diagnosis, a test named fluorescein angiography will be carried out. Injected into the body, the dye will be tracked during its spread with blood flow. Evaluation of the result photos can determine the severity of diabetic retinopathy.

High blood-sugar in diabetic patients brings great risk and they do not know when diabetic retinopathy happens. Once diagnosed with diabetes, patients should take a dilated eye exam every year, in order to detect early diabetic retinopathy signs.

Diabetic retinopathy has different stages. An early form of diabetic retinopathy displays in fluid leakage and bleeding in the retina, which cause retina to swell and build up deposit. Experts define this form of diabetic retinopathy as non-proliferative retinopathy or background retinopathy. Also named proliferative retinopathy, a later stage of retinopathy is much more serious. New blood vessels begin to grow and break and bleed into the center of the eye, which may lead to blindness.

There are many ways to reduce the risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. Since the disease is mostly associated with diabetes, the most preventive way is to control your blood-sugar level. Regular exercises and healthy diet are important. For early detection, you should monitor your blood pressure regularly.

With early detection and treatment, diabetic retinopathy can be treated successfully at a percentage of 95. For normal diabetic retinopathy, a painless procedure named laser photocoagulation can be used to seal off leaking blood vessels and remove new vessel growth. Diabetic-caused cataracts can be cured with cataract surgery. Investigational treatments for diabetic retinopathy are reported to improve the patient’s vision and Lucentis and Avastin initially used for macular degeneration have been proved to be effective for diabetic retinopathy in stopping vision loss.