OCTA, functional testing reveal preclinical signs of diabetic retinopathy

Your eyes might be the windows to your soul, but what do they say about your diabetes?

According to recent research, your eyes say quite a bit about your health and the extend to which diabetes is impacting your vision. Researchers believe that diabetic patients might be more susceptible to early capillary dropout than patients without. That means that even before they are diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy, they might experience significant difficulty with contrast sensitivity and visual acuity. They find it harder to do things like drive at dusk or read in dim light, in other words, even before they have been officially diagnosed with retinopathy.

Visual impairment might be considered an early manifestation of neovascular damage in diabetes patients. More research in this area is forthcoming.