Endocrine & metabolic · UKMLA & AKT
Diabetic retinopathy
A free high-yield preview for the UKMLA Applied Knowledge Test, covering how to recognise this condition. The full SA Note notes add investigations, management and complications, with practice questions on this topic.
Key high-yield points
- Most common cause of new blindness in working-age adults (20-65 years) in the UK
- Caused by prolonged hyperglycaemia → pericyte loss → microaneurysms → leakage and/or ischaemia → VEGF-driven neovascularisation
- Largely asymptomatic until advanced - diagnosis relies on screening, not symptoms
- Up to 25% of type 2 diabetics already have retinopathy at diagnosis; ~90% of type 1 diabetics develop it after 25 years
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