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For Immediate Release Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Annual Eye Exams for People with Diabetes Could
Prevent Blindness
DENVER—The Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment’s Diabetes Prevention and Control Program Tuesday encouraged
residents who have been diagnosed with diabetes to have retinal eye
examinations every year to check for signs of diabetic-related eye
diseases that often can cause blindness.
Dale Rogoff Greer, manager of the department’s Diabetes
Prevention and Control Program, said that diabetic retinopathy is the
most common complication from diabetes and is the leading cause of
blindness in Colorado for people ages 20 to 74. She said that an
estimated half of Colorado residents who have been diagnosed with
diabetes have some form of retinopathy, and that more than 200 Colorado
residents with diabetes will actually go blind this year due to the eye
disease.
"Annual retinal eye exams could prevent 90 percent of
advanced diabetic retinopathy patients from going blind,” she said.
Greer explained that diabetic retinopathy occurs when
diabetes damages the tiny blood vessels in the retina.
She said, “Without timely treatment, this condition
could cause the growth of new, fragile blood vessels along the retina of
the eye. In time, the new blood vessels could break and bleed easily,
causing blood clots that destroy the retina and cause blindness.
Two important ways that people with diabetes can help
prevent serious eye diseases, Greer said, are to, first, try to keep
their blood sugar and blood pressure as close to normal as possible.
Second, they should have regular dilated eye examinations so that eye
care specialists can detect early signs of eye disease. Patients with
retinopathy should have retinal eye exams even more often.
“Annual retinal eye examinations, or dilated eye
examinations, usually are covered under medical insurance plans,” she
said.
Greer said people with diabetes also are at risk for
other diabetic eye diseases, such as cataracts and glaucoma, which cause
clouding of the eye’s lens and severe nerve damage.
She said, “People with diabetes are twice as likely to
get glaucoma as people without diabetes. Keeping regular appointments
for eye exams could mean the difference between keeping or losing
eyesight. Finding and treating diseases early, before they cause vision
loss or blindness, are the best ways to control them.”
For more information about diabetes, retinal eye
examinations or diabetic retinopathy, call the Colorado Diabetes
Prevention and Control Program at the Department of Public Health and
Environment at (303) 692-2580 or visit the program’s Web site at
www.cdphe.state.co.us/pp/diabetes.
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