Optometry and Vision Science

Biography

Biography: Shroug M Aldaham

Abstract

Background: Early retinal neurosensory dysfunction occurs before any apparent retinal vascular changes in type 2 diabetes.(1,2) It has been reported that diabetics without retinopathy show a decrease in mesopic letter contrast sensitivity(2) and in low contrast visual acuity..(3-5) The information however is lacking about whether different visual tests would show equal mesopic visual dysfunction or not. Purpose: The purpose of this study therefore is to assess mesopic visual function in type 2 diabetics without retinopathy, with well controlled glucose level, and compare it with healthy controls using three visual tests. Methods: This cross-sectional study included thirty-four normal controls and thirty type 2 diabetics without retinopathy, with age and sex matched and well controlled glucose level. Three visual function tests were assessed under mesopic luminance conditions (high and low contrast visual acuity, contrast sensitivity using sinusoidal gratings at low spatial frequencies of 0.5, 1, and 2 cycles per degree, and disk halo size). Results: Type 2 diabetics showed a worse high and low contrast visual acuity and a larger disk halo size compared to healthy subjects, but did not show any change in contrast sensitivity at low spatial frequencies. Conclusions: Type 2 diabetics without retinopathy do not show equal mesopic visual dysfunction for the three visual function tests.

This presentation will further examine the visual tests’ differences aiming to see which test can be used as a screening tool for diabetics to detect early visual changes before the onset of retinopathy.