Eye Health and Diabetes
What is diabetes retinopathy?
High blood glucose levels caused by diabetes can damage the blood vessels in the tissue at the back of your eye (retina), which is responsible for your vision.
These blood vessels become weak and will leak fluid into the layers of the retina. The fluid can build, causing swelling. If the swelling is near the area responsible for your central vision (fovea), this is known as diabetes-related maculopathy.
As well as causing fluid to leak, high blood glucose can cause vessels to become blocked. This means less oxygen gets to the retina.
This causes a growth hormone known as VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) to increase and abnormal blood vessels to grow on the retina (proliferative diabetes-related retinopathy). These new vessels grow into the gel in the middle of the eye and bleed.
If left untreated, both maculopathy and proliferative retinopathy can cause vision loss and blindness.
Who is at risk?
Anyone with diabetes is at risk of developing retinopathy or maculopathy.
- Type 1 diabetes
- Type 2 diabetes
- Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY)
- Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA)
- Type 3c diabetes (caused by other medical conditions affecting the pancreas)
If you have gestational diabetes, you do not need to attend any eye screening.
The longer you have diabetes the higher the risk of developing retinopathy or maculopathy. However, most people who develop retinopathy will develop the mild non-sight-threatening forms.
For those who do develop the sight-threatening levels of retinopathy or maculopathy there is treatment available. Therefore, developing retinopathy does not mean you will lose your vision. Sight loss due to diabetes is preventable and the best way to protect yourself is through self-care and attending healthcare appointments.
Eye Screening
Diabetic eye screening monitors the health of the back of your eye (retina). It is important to attend diabetic eye-screening appointments as studies have shown that treatment for proliferative retinopathy is more effective before visual symptoms occur.
Diabetic eye screening can detect the early changes, allowing you to make changes to your self-care routine to prevent retinopathy worsening and to get treatment as soon as it is needed.
Symptoms of visual issues
The early stages of diabetic retinopathy have no signs or symptoms, which is why screening is needed to detect background retinopathy.
In later stages, the signs of visual problems that require immediate investigation include:
- Blurred vision
- Sudden reduction in vision
- Spider web-type appearance in vision
- Sudden increase in floaters
- Flashing lights
- A dark curtain over vision
These may appear in one or both eyes. These need to be checked by an eye health specialist such as an optician or ophthalmologist immediately.
Your optician can check the back of your eye and refer you to an ophthalmologist for further assessment, or you can attend eye casualty where you will be seen by an ophthalmologist.
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