British Journal of Ophthalmology 2007;91:1599-1601
SCIENTIFIC REPORT
Biennial eye screening in patients with diabetes without retinopathy: 10-year experience
University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Correspondence to:
E Stefánsson, University of Iceland, University Hospital Landspitali, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland; einarste{at}landspitali.is
Aims: To evaluate the safety of every-other-year eye screening for patients with diabetes without retinopathy.
Methods: Since 1994, patients with diabetes without retinopathy in Iceland have received eye screening every other year. 296 patients with diabetes who had no diabetic retinopathy in 1994/95 were followed with biennial eye examinations until they had developed retinopathy. The 10-year experience of this approach is reviewed.
Results: Out of the 296 diabetic individuals, 172 did not develop diabetic retinopathy during the 10-year observation period. 96 patients developed mild non-proliferative retinopathy, six developed clinically significant diabetic macular oedema, 23 developed preproliferative retinopathy, and four developed proliferative diabetic retinopathy during the 10-year observation period. All the patients who developed macular oedema or proliferative retinopathy had already been diagnosed as having mild nonproliferative retinopathy and entered an annual screening protocol before the sight-threatening retinopathy developed. No patient had any undue delay in treatment.
Conclusion: Every other year screening for diabetic eye disease seems to be safe and effective in diabetics without retinopathy. Such an approach will reduce the number of screening visits more than 25%. This reduces health costs and strain on resources considerably and relieves the patients with diabetes from unnecessary clinic visits and examinations.
Abbreviations: DME, diabetic macular oedema; PDR, proliferative diabetic retinopathy; VA, visual acuity
Competing interests: None declared.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- BJO at a glance
- Harminder S Dua and Arun D Singh, Editors-in
Br. J. Ophthalmol. 2007 91: 1573.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
-
All Versions of this Article:
bjo.2007.123810v1
91/12/1599 most recent - Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
