Eye Screening in LADA

Diabetic retinopathy is damage to the small blood vessels at the back of the eye, in the retina. It is the most common cause of sight loss in working-age adults with diabetes, and it develops without symptoms until it is advanced.

The check is a dilated retinal examination. Drops widen your pupils so the whole retina can be seen, or photographed. Your vision is blurry for a few hours afterwards, so arrange not to drive yourself home.

You should have one when your diabetes is diagnosed, and then yearly — more often if any changes are found.

The timing point specific to LADA is worth stating clearly. Screening is counted from when your diabetes was diagnosed, not from when LADA was confirmed. If those dates are five years apart, you are five years into the risk, not starting fresh. Say both dates to your eye doctor.

What protects your eyes is the same set of things that protect everything else: blood sugar as close to target as is safe, blood pressure controlled, blood fats controlled, and not smoking.

Treatment works well when problems are caught early — laser treatment and eye injections can protect vision that is already at risk. What cannot be recovered is vision already lost.

See your doctor promptly, without waiting for the annual check, for sudden blurring, floating spots or dark shapes, a curtain across your vision, or eye pain.