A potential pathway for managing diabetic patients with arterial emboli detected by retinal screening.

Journal article

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to review a pathway of care for diabetic patients found to have retinal artery emboli detected by retinal screening. DESIGN: This was a retrospective review of a pathway agreed in 2001 by a multidisciplinary team. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The prospectively collected Gloucestershire Diabetic Retinal Screening Programme database was reviewed; patients sent for carotid duplex imaging underwent review of their scan results and their casenotes. RESULTS: The prevalence of retinal emboli was 214 out of 25,299 diabetic patients who had retinal screening (0.85%). Some 200 diabetic patients underwent carotid duplex imaging; 23 had ipsilateral and 2 had contralateral carotid stenosis > 70%. Of these, ten patients underwent carotid endarterectomy without any major morbidity. CONCLUSIONS: [corrected] A pathway was established for the small number of patients with retinal emboli, and could be tested in other populations.

Authors: Hadley, G; Earnshaw, J; Stratton, I; Sykes, J; Scanlon, P

• Journal: European journal of vascular and endovascular surgery : the official journal of the European Society for Vascular Surgery
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 153-157
• Publication date: 2011-08-01
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejvs.2011.04.031
• EISSN: 1532-2165
• ISSN: 1078-5884
• Language: English
• Keywords: Treatment Outcome; Female; Humans; Retrospective Studies; Diabetic Retinopathy; Retinal Artery Occlusion; Fluorescein Angiography; Asymptomatic Diseases; England; Angioplasty; Endarterectomy, Carotid; Middle Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Male; Severity of Illness Index; Carotid Stenosis; Aged; Critical Pathways; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex; Interdisciplinary Communication; Mass Screening; Patient Care Team; Predictive Value of Tests; Prevalence