This site is intended for healthcare professionals

CPD
CPD
Pro
Pro
account_circleSign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Go to /pro/cpd-dashboard page

This page is worth 0.05 CPD credits. CPD dashboard

Go to /account/subscription-details page

This page is worth 0.05 CPD credits. Upgrade to Pro

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

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.