Diabetes retinopathy

Diabetes retinopathy 

Updated: 01/21/2021

© Jun Wang,MD, PhD

General features
  • Common cause of blindness in Western society
  • Associated with neovascularization of iris and secondary glaucoma
Classification
  • Background retinopathy: Initial lesion, capillary microangiopathy
  • Pre-proliferative retinopathy: Significant venous dilation/beading, cotton wool spots (due to focal infarcts in nerve fiber layer), extensive formation of intraretinal microvascular abnormalities (due to vascular shunts) and extensive ischemia
  • Proliferative retinopathy: Growth of neovascular tissue from retina into vitreous; causes retinal detachment; may occur without clinically visible background diabetic retinopathy
  • Some classify it into two categories: non-proliferative and proliferative, based on the absence and presence of neovascular tissue
Pathological features
  • Thickening of basement membrane of pars plicata of ciliary body
  • Glycogen containing vacuoles of iris pigment epithelium



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