Diabetic retinopathy: looking beyond the eyes

Looking Through the Patients’ Eyes

Objective: Patient satisfaction is a personal evaluation of health-care services that is often used as an indicator of quality of care. The aim of this study was to identify aspects of hospital care that affect patient satisfaction by examining the structural and convergent validity of an in-house questionnaire. Methods: The sample consisted of 3320 patients discharged from an Italian public ho...

Studies on Retinal Circulation in Experimental Animals, Healthy Human Eyes and Eyes with Diabetic Retinopathy

Obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetic retinopathy: Beyond hyperglycemia

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most feared ocular manifestation of diabetes. DR is characterized by progressive retinal damage that may eventually result in blindness. Clinically, this blindness is caused by progressive damage to the retinal microvasculature, which leads to ischemia, retinal swelling, and neovascularization. Retinopathy is associated with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, with...

Beyond HbA1c: Environmental Risk Factors for Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy affects 4.2 million people in the United States and is the leading cause of blindness in working-aged people. As the prevalence of diabetes continues to rise, cost-effective interventions to decrease blindness from diabetic retinopathy will be paramount. While HbA1c and duration of disease are known risk factors, they account for only 11% of the risk of developing microvasc...

Telemedicine and diabetic retinopathy: moving beyond retinal screening.

Current projections estimate that diabetes mellitus will afflict over 439 million individuals worldwide by 2030. The task of detecting and evaluating for the presence and severity of retinopathy in the populations with diabetes mellitus is enormous. Although current methods of treatment are effective in reducing the risk for vision loss, a substantial proportion of patients still do not receive...