How diabetic retinopathy affects the eyes depends on the stage of the disease.
Background retinopathy
This is the earliest stage of the disease, and is also called "simple retinopathy." It is not threatening to sight but should be monitored by an ophthalmologist. It's signs and symptoms include:
- Tiny swellings in the blood vessel walls appearing as small red dots on the retina.
- Tiny yellow patches of hard exudates (proteins from the blood) on the retina.
- Dots and blots of haemorrhage on the retina.
Maculopathy
This is the second stage. In maculopathy, the haemorrhages, exudates and swellings of the first stage occur in the macula, the area of the retina we use most. This may interfere with vision, particularly for reading and seeing fine details.
Proliferative retinopathy
In this third stage, some of the tiny blood vessels in the retina become blocked. In response to the lack of blood in the retina, new abnormal and fragile blood vessels grow. Proliferative retinopathy causes no symptoms until it is very advanced. If any of these new blood vessels bleed into the eye (vitreous haemorrhage), it can cause sudden loss of vision in one eye.
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