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Natural history of diabetic retinopathy

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is essentially, but not exclusively, a microvascular disease. In the absence any interventions, the disease usually progress from mild to more severe stages in an orderly fashion.

  • It can involve the peripheral retina, the macula, or both.

The classification of diabetic retinopathy is mainly based on two factors: the presence or absence of new vessels and the presence or absence of subfoveal macular oedema (2).

  • Based on the presence or absence of new vessels, DR can be divided into:
    • non proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR)
    • proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) (3).

Reference:

  1. Ghanchi F; Diabetic Retinopathy Guidelines Working Group. The Royal College of Ophthalmologists' clinical guidelines for diabetic retinopathy: a summary. Eye (Lond). 2013 Feb;27(2):285-7. doi: 10.1038/eye.2012.287.
  2. American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) 2019. Preferred Practice Pattern guidelines. Diabetic retinopathy.
  3. Broadbent D. Diabetic retinopathy: Fundamentals for primary care. Diabetes & Primary Care 2013;Vol 15 No 4

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