Diabetic Eye Examination

To detect diabetic retinopathy and to monitor its progression patients need a comprehensive eye evaluation:

During eye evaluatin patients will be tested in several areas:

Visual acuity test and Slit-lamp examination:
This uses an eye chart to measure how well you can distinguish object details and shape at various distances. Perfect visual acuity is 20/20 or better.

Slit lamp is a type of microscope is used to examine the front part of the eye, including the eyelids, conjunctiva, sclera, cornea, iris, anterior chamber, lens, and also parts of the retina and optic nerve.

Dilated examination:
Drops are placed in your eyes to widen, or dilate, the pupil, enabling your Eye M.D. to examine more thoroughly the retina and optic nerve for signs of damage.

It is important that your blood sugar be consistently controlled for several days when you see your eye doctor for a routine exam. If your blood sugar is uneven, causing a change in your eye's focusing power, it will interfere with the measurements your doctor needs to make when prescribing new eyeglasses. Glasses that work well when your blood sugar is out of control will not work well when your blood sugar level is stable.

Your Eye M.D. may find the following additional tests useful to help determine why vision is blurred, whether laser treatment should be started, and, if so, where to apply laser treatment.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT)

OCT is a non-invasive scanning laser that provides high-resolution images of the retina, helping your Eye M.D. evaluate its thickness. OCT can provide information about the presence and severity of macular edema (swelling).

Diabetic retinopathy is retinopathy (damage to the retina) caused by complications of diabetes mellitus, which can eventually lead to blindness. It is an ocular manifestation of systemic disease which affects up to 80% of all patients who have had diabetes for 10 years or more[1]. Despite these intimidating statistics, research indicates that at least 90% of these new cases could be reduced if there was proper and vigilant treatment and monitoring of the eyes[citation needed]. Diabetic retinopathy often has no early warning signs. Even macular edema, which may cause vision loss more rapidly, 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.