Ophthalmology

Could the visual disturbances that diabetes patients experience be prevented?

Surveys indicate that eyesight is the one sense that Americans fear losing most. Several weeks ago, I examined a patient who complained of "sudden" onset vision loss....

Study examines effect of statins in diabetic retinopathy risk for type 2 diabetes patients. 

Specific A1c, glucose ranges associated with diabetes-specific vision impairment.

Study assesses glycemic variability via continuous glucose monitoring and compares it against incidence of diabetic retinopathy to determine if correlation exists.

Development of diabetic retinopathy found to be significantly reduced.

New findings compare treatment with patients taking two or more glucose-lowering agents.

Software provides screening decision without need for a clinician to interpret image or results.

By A. Paul Chous, MA, OD, FAAO, CDE

The FDA just gave first approval to an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for the detection of diabetic retinopathy in the offices of non-ophthalmic health care practitioners. Dubbed the IDx-DR (IDx, LLC, Coralville, Iowa), and paired with a Topcon NW400 non-mydriatic retinal camera, captured images are sent to a cloud-based server that utilizes the IDx-DR software and a ‘deep learning’ algorithm to detect retinal findings consistent with diabetic retinopathy based on autonomous comparison with a large dataset of representative fundus images.

Serum bilirubin is inversely correlated with diabetic retinopathy predicting progression of retinopathy over time.