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Latest Eye Care (Retinopathy) Articles
Diabetes and Eye Care (Retinopathy) Article Archives
May 2011
A study just published by VSP® Vision Care, a 56 million-member non-profit vision benefits and services company, reports that VSP has saved its clients $4.5 billion in potential healthcare expenditures via early detection of chronic eye diseases.
1 comment - Posted May 15, 2011
February 2011
New University of Georgia research has found that a statin drug that is often known by the brand-name Lipitor may help prevent blindness in people with diabetes. In a study using diabetic rats, lead author Azza El-Remessy, assistant professor in the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, and her colleagues found that statins prevent free radicals in the retina from killing nerves important to maintaining vision. The results of the study are published in the March edition of the journal Diabetologia.
0 comments - Posted Feb 23, 2011
Many tragic complications of diabetes, including amputations, heart attack, stroke, and blindness, are due to blood vessel damage. According to Xiaochao Wei, PhD, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, all that vascular damage may be caused by a shortage of one enzyme: fatty acid synthase, or FAS.
0 comments - Posted Feb 11, 2011
The National Eye Health Education Program (NEHEP) of the National Eye Institute now has a Diabetes and Healthy Eyes Toolkit to help community health workers educate people with diabetes about diabetic eye disease. The Toolkit is available in both English and Spanish and its contents ensure that community health workers are equipped with science-based, user-friendly materials about diabetes and eye health to enable them to provide sight-saving information to groups of people with diabetes, their family, and their friends.
0 comments - Posted Feb 10, 2011
November 2010
When most people think of diabetes, the first thing to come to mind is rarely blindness, yet blindness is a very real complication of diabetes: Diabetes is actually the number one cause of new blindness in the United States.
2 comments - Posted Nov 25, 2010
August 2010
Laser eye surgery is becoming increasingly popular as more and more people look to free themselves from their glasses or contact lenses. There are two main types of laser eye surgery, Lasik and Lasek. The vast majority of people choose to have Lasik because it has a far quicker and more comfortable recovery period. Most people can return to work and normal activities within 48 hours of having Lasik, whereas it can take up to a week to recover from Lasek surgery. In some instances your surgeon may insist that you have Lasik--if, for example, you are involved in contact sports.
1 comment - Posted Aug 16, 2010
July 2010
Data from the massive ACCORD study on intensive blood sugar control shows that lowering blood sugar levels in people with longstanding type 2 diabetes to near-normal may delay the appearance of signs that point to damage to nerves, eyes, and kidneys, but does not stop their progression toward it.
0 comments - Posted Jul 9, 2010
In people with longstanding type 2 diabetes who are at high risk for heart attack and stroke, lowering blood sugar to near-normal levels did not delay the combined risk of diabetic damage to kidneys, eyes, or nerves, but did delay several other signs of diabetic damage, a study has found. The intensive glucose treatment was compared with standard glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Jul 2, 2010
June 2010
Results from a Phase 3 study demonstrate MACUGEN® (pegaptanib sodium) significantly improved vision in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), a complication of diabetes that is a leading cause of blindness in people of working age.¹ In the study, 37 percent of patients treated with MACUGEN gained two lines, or 10 letters, of vision on the ETDRS eye chart at 54 weeks, compared to 20 percent of patients who received a sham (placebo-like) procedure which consists of anesthesia and a simulated injection in the eye (p=0.0047). The data were presented at the World Ophthalmology Congress in Berlin by Frank G. Holz, an investigator in the trial and director of the University Eye Hospital at the University of Bonn in Germany.
0 comments - Posted Jun 7, 2010
May 2010
Clinical studies at 52 different sites nationwide have shown that combining standard laser treatments with injections of the drug ranibizumab (Lucentis) offers substantially better results for treating macular edema than laser treatments alone. The research showed that almost 50 percent of patients treated with the combination therapy showed substantial improvement in their vision after one year, compared with 28 percent of patients who had been treated solely with laser.
1 comment - Posted May 1, 2010
February 2010
Thwarting a protein that carries an otherwise benign enzyme into the nuclei of cells in the retina, where the enzyme kills the retinal cells, may hold the key to preventing blindness in patients with diabetes. That's the conclusion of a two-year study by researchers at Michigan State University seeking a way to treat retinopathy, the disease that often leads to blindness in people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Feb 16, 2010
January 2010
THURSDAY, Dec. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Steroid injections into the eye slowed diabetes-related eye disease, though lasers remain the treatment of choice because of side effects related to the steroids, new research shows.
2 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2010
August 2009
The theory of unintended consequences has gotten another boost. Although two drugs designed to slow the loss of kidney function in people with type 1 diabetes turned out to be busts, they had a wonderful but entirely unexpected side effect: Eye damage was reduced by 65 to 70 percent in the patients taking them.
6 comments - Posted Aug 17, 2009
June 2009
Here’s a handy meter to have if reading your meter is a challenge. The Prodigy Autocode meter speaks your test results in seconds, and it’ll do so in English or Spanish. The audible function also promotes team work by allowing you to hear your child’s or spouse’s test result from across the room and work together as a team to manage diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2009
May 2009
"I think I'm the only blind principal in Los Angeles," stated Connie Gibson after she developed diabetic retinopathy, which later led to sudden vision loss after complications from laser surgery. Now age 59, Gibson is currently legally blind, but has been able to move forward with her life. She continues working and living an active lifestyle despite her disability.
5 comments - Posted May 6, 2009
January 2009
Type 1.5 diabetes, also known as Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA), is an autoimmune disease that falls between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes because it has characteristics of both.
11 comments - Posted Jan 6, 2009
December 2008
The day I heard "Diabetes is not the leading cause of heart attack, blindness, kidney disease, and amputation," my life changed. I had believed the opposite to be true for the 32 years I'd been dealing with diabetes. Complications had always hung like a knife over my head.
14 comments - Posted Dec 22, 2008
November 2008
As a child, I had an obsessive, irrational fear of going blind. At night, I lay in bed and kept opening my eyes every few minutes as I fell asleep to make sure I could still see, searching for outside lights filtering through the curtains of my bedroom window.
3 comments - Posted Nov 17, 2008
August 2008
When the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) hosted its convention June 30 through July 5 in Dallas, Texas, it awarded the Access Plus (A+) Award to Diagnostic Devices, Inc., makers of Prodigy® blood glucose monitoring systems. “The A+ Award program was designed to reward companies that make consumer products that are truly accessible for blind people,” said Eileen Rivera Ley, Director of Diabetes Initiatives for the NFB. The A+ Award is for products that afford the blind the same convenience and features available to everyone else and is awarded only to products and services that meet the highest standards of accessibility.
0 comments - Posted Aug 5, 2008
July 2008
When does a visit to the eye doctor mean more than just a new pair of glasses and a change in prescription? When it can change—or even save—your life.
7 comments - Posted Jul 31, 2008
April 2008
Here is a troubling finding that you will want to discuss with your opthamologist and cardiologist: Type 2 diabetics who already have retinopathy when they are diagnosed are 2.5 times more likely to develop heart failure than type 2’s who are diagnosed without it.
0 comments - Posted Apr 21, 2008
January 2008
Because scientists often tend to dismiss what they don't fully understand, many of them used to think that C-peptide had no physiological function. But while it's true that C-peptide does nothing to lower blood sugar, recent research is finding that it might have a role in preventing diabetes complications.
19 comments - Posted Jan 3, 2008
December 2007
Researchers have found that fenofibrate, also known as Lofibra and TriCor, reduces the progression of diabetic retinopathy in humans. (Retinopathy occurs when the small blood vessels that supply the eye begin to leak and swell, resulting in progressive vision loss.)
1 comment - Posted Dec 21, 2007
November 2007
If you have diabetes, you know the drill: You're supposed to get an eye check with dilation every year. But fewer than half of you do it.
1 comment - Posted Nov 13, 2007
October 2007
A study of 4,099 non-diabetic elderly patients has found that a low-glycemic index diet reduces the incidence and severity of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of irreversible blindness.
0 comments - Posted Oct 3, 2007
August 2007
Diabetic retinopathy, a condition in which bleeding inside the eye causes damage to the retina, is the leading cause of blindness among working age adults. Early treatment is key to keeping you from that dark path.
1 comment - Posted Aug 31, 2007
July 2007
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, July 24, 2007 - Although they have a greater than average risk of developing retinal problems and blindness, many people with diabetes never visit their eye doctor.
0 comments - Posted Jul 25, 2007
May 2007
A report released at a recent meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), called “The State of Diabetes Complications in America,” has revealed some pretty depressing facts about the consequences of diabetes today.
0 comments - Posted May 20, 2007
Let’s start from the beginning. First, you’ve got the endothelium. What’s that, you ask? Well, endo means “internal” and thelium means “cellular layer.” The endothelium, therefore, is the layer of cells that lines the heart, blood vessels, and certain other cavities in the body.
0 comments - Posted May 11, 2007
April 2007
The crack of the bat on Opening Day at Fenway Park is a sure sign that summer is on its way. From the Green Monster seats to the dunes of Cape Cod, summer means bright sun, ultraviolet rays and of course, sunglasses. But did you know that people with diabetes need more than sunglasses to protect their eyes?
0 comments - Posted Apr 27, 2007
Upcoming research in the Journal of Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice reveals that Pycnogenol (pik-naw-jin-all) that many-talented extract of pine tree, is 190 times more effective than the prescription medicine acarbose (Precose) in slowing uptake of glucose after a meal, thereby preventing after-meal glucose spikes.
1 comment - Posted Apr 15, 2007
March 2007
BOSTON - March 23, 2007 - Did you know that diabetes is the number one cause of preventable vision loss and blindness? Did you also know that an annual eye exam can lead to early detection of diabetic retinopathy and other eye disease, a frequent complication of diabetes?
0 comments - Posted Mar 27, 2007
Are you among the six million Americans who have type 2 diabetes and don’t realize it? Take heed: March 27 is the 19th Annual Diabetes Alert Day, sponsored by the American Diabetes Association as a wake-up call to people who are completely in the dark about the fact that they are living with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Mar 27, 2007
September 2006
July 2006
On April 20, 2006, Eli Lilly & Co. told Diabetes Health that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review status for Arxxant, its potential “first-in-class treatment” for diabetic retinopathy.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2006
September 2005
Diabetes duration and A1C remain the gold standard for determining whether you may develop retinopathy and neuropathy. However, if you are a type 1 with a weight problem, you may not be slowing down the progression to these microvascular complications.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
June 2005
People with retinopathy have a higher rate of congestive heart failure (CHF), even those without preexisting coronary heart disease, diabetes or hypertension.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2005
April 2005
I am devoting this month’s column to the most important sight-saving information that you should know as a person living with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2005
December 2004
A Japanese study shows that elevated after-meal plasma fructose levels are linked to proliferative retinopathy in type 2 diabetics.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2004
March 2004
Only 50 to 60 percent of people with diabetes receive annual eye exams from their optometrists, ophthalmologists, or other providers of eye care within 15 months of diagnosis.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
April 2003
Pima Indians who developed type 2 diabetes before they were 20 years old later developed kidney disease at the same rate as those who got type 2 as adults.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2003
January 2003
Renal (kidney) function declines more rapidly in people with type 2 diabetes who have both retinopathy and proteinuria (protein in the urine).
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
November 2002
Dutch researchers say retinopathy is associated with blood pressure levels, lipid concentrations, and body mass index (BMI).
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
Pupil size may indicate impending complications in people with diabetes. Researchers in Germany say that pupillary autonomic neuropathy may be an early sign of other autonomic nerve damage, such as that involving the heart. Autonomic neuropathy involves damage to the nerves in bodily systems that function automatically.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
Pupil size may indicate impending complications in people with diabetes. Researchers in Germany say that pupillary autonomic neuropathy may be an early sign of other autonomic nerve damage, such as that involving the heart. Autonomic neuropathy involves damage to the nerves in bodily systems that function automatically.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
June 2002
Why Have I Lost Depth Perception in My Vision?
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2002
May 2002
Two-field retinal photography, a screening tool for detecting diabetes-related retinopathy, might provide a useful alternative to routine exams by eye doctors for people with diabetes, say researchers in the Netherlands, writing in the December 2001 issue of Diabetes Care.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2002
March 2002
Turkish researchers are exploring whether blink reflex testing can be a useful method for early diagnosis of central nervous system damage in people with diabetes. Although advanced testing for diabetes-related damage to the peripheral nervous system is available, the same is not true for damage to the central nervous system.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
January 2002
Women with retinopathy—a diabetes complication that can lead to blindness—should have their eyes checked regularly during pregnancy, say researchers in the United Kingdom.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2002
April 2001
Editor's Note: DIABETES HEALTH encourages every person with diabetes to see an eye doctor at least once per year. A treatment like the one featured here should never replace professional care, and you should always notify your doctors when you take a non-prescription treatment. Only a professional has the tools to assess the health of your eyes.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2001
On March 1, the American Academy of Ophthalmology reported that more than one third of people with diabetes do not adhere to vision care guidelines established by both the Academy and the American Diabetes Association.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2001
March 2001
According to the Foundation of American Academy of Ophthalmology (FAAO), diabetic retinopathy affects 25 percent of people with diabetes. For the 600,000 Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes, help in preventing this complication is on the way.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2001
April 2000
A protein called VEGF which is essential in building new blood vessels may be responsible for the eye problems experienced by many people with diabetes, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and CIBA Vision Corporation. Their findings were published in the February 2000 issue of the American Journal of Pathology. Retinopathy develops in people with diabetes when blood vessels in the light-sensitive retina are damaged by the disease, causing a lack of oxygen. In response, VEGF tries to remedy the situation by signaling the growth of new blood vessels. Unfortunately, these new vessels are often weak or leaky, and may worsen the condition by forming so much scar tissue that the retina may become detached as a result. The researchers believe that vision loss can be halted by blocking VEGF, either through drugs or gene therapy.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2000
February 2000
Until February 29, the Laser Eye Center of Southern California and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) are offering a special rate on the LASIK eye procedure to correct farsightedness, nearsightedness and astigmatism.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2000
Since people with diabetes are 25 times more likely to become blind than the non-diabetic population, an annual dilated eye exam is highly recommended. African-Americans with diabetes are twice as likely to become blind as their Caucasian counterparts.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2000
January 2000
Pycnogenol, the number one prescription for retinopathy in France, is unknown to many doctors in the United States who treat people with diabetes. French doctors swear by Pycnogenol's antioxidant powers, but most American doctors cannot even pronounce it.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2000
November 1999
I am a fire fighter who uses a Disetronic insulin pump and Tender infusion set. I have frequently asked sales reps, Disetronic engineers in Minnesota and Sweden and lots of diabetes educators, at what temperature does an infusion set melt? I have never gotten a sufficient answer. The standard line is that insulin is not viable over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1999
September 1999
The Internet may play a key part in eye exams for people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1999
August 1999
Two patient reminders are more effective than one reminder in improving diabetic retinal exam rates in a managed care setting.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
May 1999
A study published in the January 1999 issue of the journal Ophthalmology revealed that proper control of blood glucose could significantly reduce cortical cataracts in people of African descent.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1999
March 1999
"I was shocked."
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1999
February 1999
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are suggesting that high blood glucose levels help cause cataracts in older patients with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
Jerry Long was 8 years old when he first went to the rodeo in his hometown, Roswell, New Mexico. Almost 50 years later, he's still at it, having won 18 titles, a couple saddles and more belt buckles than anyone could ever use.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
December 1998
In the August 1998 issue of Journal of the American Optometric Association, it was reported that people with diabetes may not be getting their annual eye exams. According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), these people might be running the risk of developing diabetic retinopathy.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1998
February 1998
Recent research by Sven-Erik Bursell, PhD, of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston suggests that high doses of Vitamin E (1300 IU per day) alter the development and/or progression of diabetic retinopathy.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1998
Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and the FDA met in June of last year to discuss how to make insulin bottles more distinguishable for the visually impaired. Participants agreed that a coding system using horizontal raised bars would be the most effective. If the FDA accepts the plan, the four code categories will be as follows: one bar for rapid-acting insulin analogs, two bars for regular insulins, three bars for insulin mixtures and four bars for intermediate- and long-acting insulins.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1998
March 1997
This month's Case Study is presented by DIABETES HEALTH's Eye Care Adviser, Everett Ai, MD. Dr. Ai is the director of the Retina Unit at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1997
March 1996
Good news for glaucoma sufferers-the best first treatment for the eye disease may be laser surgery. For people with the disease, this may come as a relief since sufferers to-date have been relying on the eyedrop as the initial treatment.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1996
February 1996
MiniMed is developing a glucose monitoring system that the company hopes will revolutionize self-care.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1996
January 1996
Vision care for people with diabetes is critical because disturbances of normal sight are common. Until recently it was thought that vision changes were the result of damaging changes in the structure of the eye.
3 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1996
November 1995
Good control is what diabetes self-management is all about. It means knowing your blood glucose (BG) levels and taking the appropriate steps to keep them within an acceptable range. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial determined that people with diabetes should test their BG four to seven times every day. Unfortunately, finger pricks are painful and disruptive, which causes many people to monitor their BG less than twice a day.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1995
October 1995
Of the approximately 14 million Americans with diabetes, almost half have some form of diabetic eye disease. Diabetic eye disease is the leading cause of new blindness among working age adults in the United States. Despite this, rates of annual eye examinations among persons with diabetes remain low. Increased awareness of the sight-saving benefits of annual eye examinations through dilated pupils is important in reducing the significant social costs and personal tragedy of diabetic eye disease.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1995
January 1994
High blood sugar is known to cause a variety of eye and vision complications, including sugar cataracts, blurred vision, and retinopathy (the breakdown and/or leakage of small capillaries in the eye which can cause a decrease in or total loss of vision).
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1994
February 1993
A twelve-year study conducted by medical researchers in Columbia, MO, has found that individuals with child-onset type I diabetes who maintained near-normal blood glucose levels were less likely to develop serious eye disease later in life. The results of this study give hope that well-controlled blood sugar levels will help to maintain healthy eyes. A report of this study was released by the American Academy of Ophthalmology in November 1992.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1993
January 1993
Until recent advances in laser technology, laser treatment for damage to the retina of the eye was expensive, painful, and difficult to come by for people suffering from eye retinopathies, a common complication of diabetes. The first lasers used for medical treatment were huge devices, weighing about 400 pounds and requiring 12,000 watts for their power. These laser systems were neither portable, nor were they widely available to people living in remote regions of the world.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1993