Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy - Diagnosis, Stages, Treatment and Risk Factors

How Does Diabetes Damage Your Eyes and Vision?

Untreated diabetes can cause significant damage to your eyes and vision. It can worsen further due to unhealthy lifestyles, reduced physical activity, and certain inherited genetic traits. The medical community has verified the link between diabetes and eye vision damage.

This condition is known as diabetic retinopathy, in which adults with diabetes experience the threat of complete blindness due to damage to the retinal blood vessels. Thus, it is crucial to understand its stages, symptoms, and more for proper treatment.

Keep reading to understand more about diabetic retinopathy, its symptoms, how it can be diagnosed and treated, and much more.  

What is Diabetic Retinopathy?

Individuals with diabetes may develop a condition known as diabetic retinopathy. This occurs when high blood glucose levels damage the blood vessels in the retina, which can lead to vision loss or blindness. Over time, these vessels may start leaking fluid or bleeding, leading to swelling, scarring, or the growth of fragile blood vessels.

How Does Diabetic Retinopathy Damage Your Eyes and Vision?

Diabetic retinopathy can harm the eyes by damaging the small blood vessels in the retina over time. This causes the blood vessels to leak, swell, and grow, making vision blurry or causing vision loss.

In later stages, you might experience bleeding in the eye, scarring of the retina, or even worsening of the retina's health. This condition often worsens without you noticing, so it's crucial to have regular eye check-ups and keep your blood sugar in check.

What are the Stages of Diabetic Retinopathy?

The 2 main diabetic retinopathy stages are discussed below:

1. Nonproliferative Retinopathy

The initial stage of nonproliferative retinopathy leads to swelling and leaky blood vessels. This can cause macular edema (retinal swelling), which comes with a mild severity of vision loss but can be treated. Some initial changes in the retinal ganglion cells may also affect vision, partially because of an insufficient blood supply.

2. Proliferative Retinopathy

The second stage, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, involves the growth of abnormal blood vessels on the retina's surface. These vessels may break and bleed into the vitreous, a clear gel that fills the eye, resulting in profound vision loss. At this point, immediate intervention is typically considered necessary.

What are the Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy usually affects both eyes. Diabetic retinopathy symptoms may include:

• Central vision loss
• Inability to see colors
• Floaters, or little spots in your vision due to bleeding
• Blurry vision
• Holes or black spots in vision
• Difficulty seeing things that are far away
• Seeing flashing lights
• Inability to see well at night
• Changes in vision going from blurry to clear and transparentto blurry
• Blank or dark areas in your vision
• Difficulty reading or writing

What are the Risk Factors of Diabetic Retinopathy?

Anyone diagnosed with diabetes can experience diabetic retinopathy. Mentioned below are the risks of developing this condition:

• Having diabetes for a long time
• Having high blood pressure
• Having high blood cholesterol
• Pregnancy
• Poor control of your blood sugar level
• Tobacco use
• If you’re dark-skinned, Hispanic, or African-American
   

What is the Diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy is diagnosed by specialized eye tests that find the damage early on, even before one experiences symptoms. Some of these diagnostic measures include:

• Detailed Dilated Eye Test: In this test, pupils are dilated with eye drops to examine the retina better and look for
• Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT):This test generates cross-sectional retina images to identify retinal thickness and fluid accumulation and monitor treatment response.
• Fluorescein Angiography: In this test, dye is injected into the vein, and photos are taken that bring out leaking, closed, or ruptured blood vessels in the retina.
   

What is the Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy?

Treatment of diabetic retinopathy varies by stage and severity of the disease. Here are the primary treatment approaches:

• Early Non-proliferative Phase: Usually does not need urgent treatment but requires regular follow-up and strict blood sugar control to avoid worsening.
• Anti-VEGF Injections: Drugs such as Vabysmo, Lucentis, Eylea, or off-label Avastin are injected into the eye to prevent abnormal blood vessel growth and fluid reduction.
• Focal Laser Treatment (Photocoagulation): Targets leaking blood vessels with laser burns to prevent or impede fluid leakage, saving vision.
• Panretinal Photocoagulation: This treatment treats peripheral retinal regions with sparse laser burns to reduce abnormal vessels and avoid further vision loss.
• Vitrectomy: An operation to remove blood and scar tissue from the vitreous of the eye, utilized in more difficult situations such as vitreous hemorrhage or traction on the retina.
   

Your eyes are your vision, and diabetes, if left unchecked, can damage your sight entirely. Thus, it is crucial to understand the symptoms, causes, and progression of diabetic retinopathy and to take action with routine check-ups and blood sugar management.