Proliferative retinopathy - no syptoms

[Thelma21]

Hi,

I have been diabetic type 1 for 22 years (30 years old now).

I received a letter after my yearly screening appointment saying I had proliferative retinopathy and they were referring me urgently to receive possible laser treatment, I will get an appointment within 4 weeks.

Last year my screening detected no changes, and I had a lot of eye appointments due to getting uveitis. In the past I've had small changes to the back of the eye but nothing for the past 2 years (co-insides with me controlling bloods better).

My last eye screening was only 9 months ago because they wanted to make sure using drops for uveitis didn't cause issues, and they said everything had cleared up, so considering that this letter is a huge shock to me, plus I 've not had any symptoms whatsoever - is that normal, or should I be seeing floaters, dark spots etc with this diagnosis?

If anyone has had uveitis also or perhaps knows if this could cause the diagnosis rather than my diabetes that would be helpful, as I can't see how having good control could cause it?

Thanks,

 

[Dark Horse]

Hi,

I have been diabetic type 1 for 22 years (30 years old now).

I received a letter after my yearly screening appointment saying I had proliferative retinopathy and they were referring me urgently to receive possible laser treatment, I will get an appointment within 4 weeks.

Last year my screening detected no changes, and I had a lot of eye appointments due to getting uveitis. In the past I've had small changes to the back of the eye but nothing for the past 2 years (co-insides with me controlling bloods better).

My last eye screening was only 9 months ago because they wanted to make sure using drops for uveitis didn't cause issues, and they said everything had cleared up, so considering that this letter is a huge shock to me, plus I 've not had any symptoms whatsoever - is that normal, or should I be seeing floaters, dark spots etc with this diagnosis?

If anyone has had uveitis also or perhaps knows if this could cause the diagnosis rather than my diabetes that would be helpful, as I can't see how having good control could cause it?

Thanks,

In the early stages proliferative diabetic retinopathy has no symptoms which is why we have a national programme to screen for it - by the time someone has symptoms the disease has progressed so treatment is likely to be less effective. It would be very unusual to go from 'no retinopathy' to 'proliferative retinopathy' in the space of less than a year. However, it is possible that uveitis could have accelerated this progression. https://www.researchgate.net/public...ic_Retinopathy_in_Eyes_With_Posterior_Uveitis

Until you attend your ophthalmology appointment, you won't know for sure what the diagnosis is (screening is never 100% accurate) so try not to worry in the meantime. If you do have proliferative diabetic retinopathy, at least you know it has been caught early as your previous results were clear and less than a year ago.

 

[Thelma21]

Thank you so much for replying, it has made me feel a little better about it all and makes more sense to me now - thanks for the link, I couldn't find anything myself linking the two together, so that's very helpful.