Important Things To Know About Diabetic Retinopathy - Diabetacare

By Author: Lisajoseph
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A diabetes diagnosis is not just about elevated blood sugar levels. It also brings several other concerns with it, where other organs of the body are also put at serious risk. Organs like the eyes, heart, brain and nervous system, endocrine system, feet etc can all be affected because of high blood sugar. Diabetic retinopathy is just one of them.

What is Diabetic Retinopathy?
The condition of Diabetic Retinopathy happens when the eyes are affected directly as a complication of having diabetes. It happens due to damaged blood vessels in the retina or the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye.
The damage can occur in three ways – the blood vessels in the retina can either swell up and start leaking fluid, get blocked completely, or give rise to abnormal new blood vessels on the surface of the retina.

Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy
If you have a high blood sugar, then you should always watch out for the following Diabetic Retinopathy symptoms –
1. Spots or dark eye floaters clouding your vision
2. Blurred or fluctuating vision
3. Problem with colour detection
...
... 4. Partial or complete vision loss.

Risks of Diabetic Retinopathy
In the earliest stages of Diabetic Retinopathy, the damaged blood vessels start leaking blood and other fluids into the retina. Sometimes even cholesterol and other fatty deposits are also found on the eye as a result of retinopathy. It can cause damage to the eye in the form of Microaneurysms (leaking and swollen blood vessels in the eye), retinal haemorrage (spots of blood deposit in the eye), hard exudes (cholesterol and other fatty deposits in the eye), macular edema and ischia, leading to macular degeneration.

When the blood flow in the vessels are blocked, a pressure starts building up. This pressure, when intensified, can cause serious damage to the optic nerve, causing Glaucoma.

Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy
In Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy, the blood vessels in the retina start closing up, thus preventing necessary blood circulation in the eye. To make up for this lack of circulation, the retina starts building up newer blood vessels, which are abnormal and fail to supply the retina with proper blood flow. This process is called neovascularization. This process may lead to the formation of scar tissue, leading to retinal detachment.