Assessment of retinopathy

This chapter concerns diabetic retinopathy – a serious microvascular complication of diabetes, which can have severe debilitating effects on lifestyle, work and relationships. In the UK, diabetic retinopathy remains a major cause of visual impairment and registered blindness in people under 65 years of age, but following the successful implementation of a national screening programme, it is no longer the main cause of blindness (Liew et al, 2014; Public Health England, 2014a).
To be effective, treatment for retinopathy needs to be given at the appropriate stage of the disease; usually before symptoms have developed. Hence, it is important to screen for the signs of retinopathy before they progress and at the correct annual or bi-annual interval (see case study 17.1) (Scanlon et al, 2015).