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Two Reasons Your Diabetic Patients Need Ultra-Widefield Retinal Imaging
November is National Diabetes Month. It’s a time to reflect on the growing incidence of diabetes in North America, Europe, and the rest of the world. If you’re committed to superior diagnosis and care, here are two reasons why your ever-increasing number of diabetic patients need ultra-widefield imaging.

 

2015, International Diabetes Federation, Atlas

2015, International Diabetes Federation, Atlas

 

The starting point is a stark set of numbers. Globally there are an diabetic macular edema (DME). All of these people will need visual health screening and supervision for the rest of their lives.

 

Reasons to Use Ultra-widefield For Your Diabetic Patients

 

Reason #1: Ultra-widefield (UWF™) imaging technology provides you with a more complete diagnostic picture.

 

The gold standard for assessing the presence and severity of DR and DME is ETDRS seven standard field imagery (7SF). How does UWF imaging compare? The most significant difference is diagnostic reach. UWF imaging presents a 200° view of the retina as compared to the roughly 90° view afforded by 7SF. Imaging the peripheral retina means you get more information about the health of your patient.

 

Clinical studies comparing the two techniques found:

 

— UWF optomap® color imaging, which typically does not require pupil dilation, delivers diagnostic results that compare favorably to the ETDRS gold standard.

 

“Nonmydriatic ultra-widefield images compare favorably with dilated ETDRS photography and dilated fundus examination (by a retina specialist) in determining DR and DME severity: however they are acquired more rapidly.”1

 

optomap can uncover pathology of the peripheral retina that is outside the 7SF field of view. This can result in more severe assessments of DR. Two studies2,3 comparing UWF to 7SF imaging found that more than 10% of participants were graded with more severe DR based on their optomap imagery.

 

optomap images provide diagnostic results that can have a significant impact on your patients’ DR assessment.

 

Reason #2: optomap can give you insights about DR risk and progression that are otherwise unavailable.

 

 

The diagnostic reach of UWF retinal imaging is giving doctors a better understanding of how DR progresses.

 

— One study found that patients with predominantly peripheral diabetic lesions have an almost five-fold higher risk of DR progression over a four-year period.4 This data was independent of baseline severity and A1C levels. Only an optomap can show the macula and the retinal periphery in one image and provide you and your patients with this important prognostic data.

 

— In another study, optomap fa (UWF fluorescein angiography), found significantly more pathology than 7SF fluorescein angiography.5 Researchers reported that optomap fa images showed almost four times more non-perfusion and panretinal photocoagulation as compared to 7SF images. In 10% of the eyes studied, optomap fa images uncovered retinal pathology outside the 7SF fields of view.

 

UWF imaging enables better decisions about your patients’ treatment and follow-up.

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Are there other ways your diabetic patients can benefit from UWF imaging? optomap is complimentary to dilation for complete image acquisition. Color optomap images can also be a powerful patient education tool. Taken together, it means periodic exams can be less invasive, and follow-up counseling more effective.

 

More accurate screening. Better treatment plans. Ultra-wide field imaging helps provides your diabetic patients with both.

 

About optomap and UWF Retinal Imaging

 

UWF retinal imaging technology – enabling the capture of a 200 degree view of the retina – can provide ocular health practitioners with imagery and diagnostic information about the retinal periphery that may not be provided by conventional imaging methods. Starting with color (red and green) optomap imaging, Optos has extended our UWF-based technology into a multi-modal platform that supports fundus autofluorescence (optomap af), fluorescein angiography (optomap fa) and indocyanine green angiography (optomap icg).

 

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