BEIJING — While retinal vascular changes can be indications of retinal disease, they can also help predict development of conditions and diseases in other areas of the body, including stroke, heart disease and diabetes, a speaker said here.
Tien Yin Wong, MD, gave the De Ocampo Lecture at the Opening Ceremony of the 25th APAO Congress. The lecture, entitled "An Eye Examination Can Save Your Life!" discussed how retinal vascular changes can predict cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Because the eye is an integral part of the human body system, it can be an indicator for other diseases throughout the body, Dr. Wong said. The eye can provide what he called "early signals," or insights, into conditions including hypertension and kidney disease.
"The eye, the blood vessels, the lens, the nerves really serve as a marker of various processes and various diseases' processes going on in the rest of the body," he said.
He cited studies that have shown a risk association between such conditions as retinal fractals and acute lacunar stroke, retinopathy and congestive heart failure and retinal arteriolar narrowing and diabetes mellitus.
"As physicians we are here not only to save vision, which is what our role is in ophthalmology, but really to save lives. In our practice as ophthalmologists, if we can help move them one step forward, I think that would be a significant achievement," Dr. Wong said.
source: osnsupersite
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