Chennai: one mathematical algorithm what can predict diabetes induced blindness among patients, including those newly detected with the disorder, has been launched in the city by Sankara Nethralaya. The tool, RetinaRiskwas developed with a health technology company from Iceland.
“The tool will be delivered to doctors and diabetologists as well as ophthalmologists. Doctors are required to provide six medical details about patients, including gender, age, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels and number of years with diabetes. The tool will be able to predict the risk of vision loss due to diabetic retinopathy in one year,” said Dr. Rajiv Raman, Senior Retina Surgeon, Senior Consultant at Sankara Nethralaya.
This means any doctor could use it, including primary care physicians who interact much more frequently with diabetes patients, rather than patients having to find eye doctors themselves, he said.
Diabetic retinopathy is caused by damage to the blood vessels in the light-sensitive tissue (retina) at the back of the eye. Although there are no symptoms in the early stages, it can lead to blindness without medical intervention. Data shows that one in 25 people with diabetes over the age of 40 have this condition.
“In a country that has a high incidence of diabetes, this can be disastrous. We will have an epidemic of blindness if we don’t get early diagnosis and treatment,” she said.
During our test at Nethralaya, doctors found the tool was nearly 85 percent accurate, he added.
While patients can be given medications, drugs, and an exercise regimen that will keep their diabetes and blood pressure under control, they can also be classified as low, moderate, and high risk.
This way, your eye checks can also be planned in advance, he said. RetinaRisk president Bala Kamallakharan. “This tool is used by several European countries, but we are not using the algorithm that is used in the West. We have fed Indian data and therefore the prediction is tailor-made for Indians,” he said.
