Study on clinical evaluation of diabetic retinopathy by fundus fluorescein angiography

Background: Diabetic retinopathy was responsible for 11.1% of new cases of legal blindness in all the age group and 19.1% of those in 20-64 years age group. The detection of pre-proliferative and proliferative diabetic retinopathy can prevent the complications if these patients are appropriately treated by photocoagulation of the ischemic retina. This study is meant to determine the role of F.F.A. in detection of diabetic retinopathy changes in diabetic patients. Methods: The present study was conducted for a period of two years. A hospital based cross sectional study of 100 eyes of 50 patients with diabetic retinopathy consisted of detailed anterior segment, and fundus examination clinically with FFA. Each angiogram was studied for the number, size and location of aneurysms, size and shape of foveal avascular zone and type of leakage. Result: The mean age of the patients was 55.65 years, the youngest was 21 years old and the eldest was 80 years old. 30% of total eyes were found to have micro aneurysms only, 20% of eyes were found to have moderate NPDR changes, IRMAS were found in 6% of eyes, 4% of eyes with ischemic maculopathy which was identified only through FFA. 30% of eyes with very severe NPDR turned out to PDR changes by FFA. Conclusion: In this study, we were able to identify the role of FFA in differentiating the lesions and assessing severity of characteristics like capillary loss. The procedure was useful in identifying subtle changes, which are otherwise difficult to appreciate by ophthalmoscopy, like, the number of micro aneurysms and their localization in different areas of fundus, and their size.