Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy Diagnosis

Visual acuity testing: This eye chart test measures a person’s vision

Tonometry: This test measures pressure inside the eye.

Pupil dilation: Drops placed on the eye’s surface widen the pupil, allowing a physician to examine the retina and optic nerve.

Comprehensive dilated eye exam: It allows the doctor to check the retina for:

• Changes to blood vessels or leaking blood vessels and new vessels
• Fatty deposits
• Swelling of the macula (Diabetic macular edema)
• Changes in the lens
• Damage to nerve tissue

Optical coherence tomography (OCT): It uses light waves to produce images of the retina to assess the amount of fluid.

Fundus fluorescein angiography(FFA): During this test, your doctor will inject a dye into your arm, allowing them to track how the blood flows in your eye. They’ll take pictures of the dye circulating inside of your eye to determine which vessels are blocked, leaking, or broken.

B Scan Ultrasonography: It uses ultrasound waves to image the eye when there is no view of the retina due to vitreous haemorrhage.

Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy Complications

• Vitreous hemorrhage. The new blood vessels are fragile and may bleed into the eye. If the amount of bleeding is small, you might see only a few floaters. In severe cases, blood can fill the eye and cause reduced vision.
• Retinal detachment. The abnormal blood vessels can form scar tissue which can pull on the retina and cause retinal detachment.
• New blood vessels may grow in the front part of your eye and invade the drainage part of the eye, causing increased pressure in the eye. This pressure can damage the nerve that carries images from your eye to your brain .
• Eventually, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma or both can lead to complete vision loss.

Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy Treatment

The goal of any treatment is to slow or stop the progression of the disease. Diet and exercise and controlling blood sugar levels can help control the progression of the disease.

Laser :  Widespread blood vessel growth in the retina, which occurs in proliferative diabetic retinopathy, can be treated by creating a pattern of scattered laser burns across the retina. This causes abnormal blood vessels to shrink and disappear. With this procedure, some side vision may be lost in order to safeguard central vision.

Medical management: Injection of anti VEGF medication into the eye may be used in selected patients with bleeding into the eye.

Surgical management: Vitrectomy involves removing scar tissue and blood from the vitreous fluid of the eye.

Written by: Dr. Preetha Rajasekaran – Consultant Ophthalmologist, Porur