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Experts say that early treatment of retinopathy decreases by 60% of blindness

(IRIN) - Experts

participating in Valencia in the Congress of the Ophthalmological Society of the Region have emphasized that early treatment of retinopathy decreases by 60 percent of cases of blindness as organization reported in a statement.

The first day of the annual conference has focused on the diabetic retinopathy, the second leading cause of blindness in Spain and the first working age, affecting 45 percent of people with diabetes. Experts point out that this is a growing problem, as it is expected that the diabetic population will double over the next 15 years.

During the symposium highlighted the importance of primary care in the detection of this disease, because early treatment of retinopathy decreases to 60 percent the risk of blindness. Thus, in the case of serious forms of diabetic retinopathy - proliferative - the chances of total loss occurs vision at five years are reduced by 50 percent to 5 percent if detected at an early stage.

The president of the Ophthalmological Society of the Region, Dr. Rafael Martínez Costa, has stressed the importance of prevention as retinopathy "is not painful or shows signs until the first signs of irreversible blindness ".

to identify the presence of retinopathy, just do a retinography, a technique to obtain color photographs of the retina and allows a quick and easy way to control the appearance of this pathology.

In the words of Dr. Pilar Marco, vice president of the Ophthalmological Society of the Region, "with diabetes should be performed fundus photography when diabetes is diagnosed in adulthood, and thereafter once a year. " In the case of pregnant diabetic women, "we recommend a review every quarter during pregnancy."

Marco has indicated that the prognosis of retinopathy "has improved greatly in recent years, the increased efficacy of the treatments, but also largely because they are instituted at an earlier stage, before it gets to be vision problems.

Congress has brought together primary care physicians, endocrinologists and ophthalmologists, in an interdisciplinary meeting claiming the need to provide an "integrated care" for diabetic patients. In this regard, maintaining diabetes "very controlled" and "avoid a disruption in blood glucose are the ways to prevent retinopathy.

Also in the symposium Dr. Vicente Pallares, President of the Valencian Society of Hypertension and Vascular Risk has presented data from an epidemiological study on vascular risk factors in the Region Valenciana. Thus, the universality of health care and the implementation of electronic record "have allowed the collection of a large number of population data."

FINAL RESULTS IN 2012

The purpose of this study, which will yield definitive results in 2012, is to improve clinical practice in all stages of prevention in diabetic patients from the evaluation of risk factors to prevent future disease.

Diabetic retinopathy has its origin in the deterioration of blood vessels in the retina (the eye sensitive to light). The onset and progression of diabetic retinopathy are related to alterations in glycemic control. The hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) produces lesions in the retina and in the arteries. These injuries are aggravated by high blood pressure often experienced by patients with diabetes.

Worldwide, in 2000 2.8 percent of the general population was diabetic, ie 171 million people, a figure that will rise to reach 4.4 percent of the population in 2030 ( 366 million people). This increase is due to population aging and social factors such as sedentary lifestyle and increasing obesity rates, which may facilitate the development of type 2 diabetes that appears in adulthood and accounts for 90 percent of cases.

Although new treatments have been built in recent years, such as injections of certain drugs directly into the eye and endoscopic procedures (vitrectomy), the laser remains after more than 40 years of use, the basic treatment of retinopathy diabetic.