‘Mild’ diabetic retinopathy—A fatal disease. Audit of eye screening and five year outcome of 203 people with diabetes: Part 1. Eye screening

✍ Scribed by Khaleeli, AA ;Maitland, H ;Moloney, A ;Wishart, M

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 321 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1357-8170
• DOI: 10.1002/pdi.1960160205

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

In 1991, the clinical notes of 203 consecutively treated people with diabetes were Audited and 56 (28%) judged to have retinopathy. Ten had hypertensive (HT) change and 46, typical diabetic changes (DR). Twenty six referrals from the DR group resulted in laser therapy in 17 but none were made from the HT group. In 32 of 35 people attending a special clinic, an independent consultant ophthalmologist's findings agreed. Early circinate maculopathy^1^ and macroaneurysm in a preproliferative eye were missed. No immediate change in therapy resulted.

Screening frequency was inadequate. All patients had visual acuity and fundoscopy through dilated pupils, but only 41% had every examination within 12 months of the preceding visit, rising to 74% within 15 months and 87% within 18 months. In 51 (25%), failure to attend affected the longest interval between screening. Twenty nine and 22 patients were respectively absent for >6 and >12 months. Five years later, in a randomly selected totally separate subgroup of 100 patients, annual screening frequency over 5 years had risen to 82%.