This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) 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 Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Chew, E Y Articles by Flynn, H Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Chew, E Y Articles by Flynn, H

Diabetic retinopathy: should this patient receive laser treatment?

Series editors: Susan Lightman and Peter McCluskey

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
E Y Chew
Building 31, Room 6A52, 31 Center Drive, MSC 2510, Bethesda, MD 20892-2510, USA; echew@nei.nih.gov

Accepted 12 May 2003

Keywords: diabetic retinopathy; macular oedema; vision loss; vitrectomy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

This 53 year old man has had diabetes for approximately 18 years. He has recently experienced a mild decrease in his right visual acuity 20/30 (6/9). His medications include insulin and oral hypoglycaemic agents and his most recent haemoglobin A_1C is 9.4%. At this visit, his blood pressure is 125/90. His fasting serum cholesterol level is 247 mg/dl (6.39 mmol/l) while his low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is 143 mg/dl (3.67 mmol/l). He has moderate cortical lens opacities in both eyes. The fundus examination revealed more severe changes in his right eye with the presence of marked haemorrhages in the four mid-peripheral quadrants (fig 1) with evidence of intraretinal microvascular abnormalities (IRMA) and venous abnormalities in the infranasal quadrant (fig 2). In the right macula, retinal hard exudate can be detected superotemporal to the centre of the fovea (fig 3). In his left eye, he has . . . [Full text of this article]