What is diabetes-related retinopathy?

What is diabetes-related retinopathy?

Diabetes-related retinopathy is an eye condition that weakens the blood vessels in your retina.

There are two types of diabetes-related retinopathy:

• Nonproliferative diabetes-related retinopathy (NPDR): In this early disease stage, people have blood vessels which leak in the retina. This manifests with either fluid, hemorrhage, or lipid seen in the retina. Eventually these blood vessels close causing ischemia or poor blood flow.
• Proliferative diabetes-related retinopathy (PDR): When the disease progresses, abnormal blood vessels grow in response to the ischemia. These abnormal vessels can leak blood into the gel-like substance (vitreous) that fills your eye and cause tractional changes to the surface of the retina detaching it and resulting in severe vision loss in late stages.