Abstract
Serious complications of the eyes often occur in diabetic patients. This research was
aimed at studying diabetes retinopathy (DR) in type 2 diabetes patients who were registered
with the diabetic clinic of Thaluang Hospital, Lop Buri Province, using pictures
from a fundus camera. All pictures from this camera were interpreted by an ophthalmologist.
In addition, if some cases could not be diagnosed by the pictures taken, these
cases were examined by the ophthalmologist directly. Out of 763 type 2 diabetic patients
(86.31% of all the diabetic patients), 87 patients (11.40%) had to be examined by the ophthalmologist.
The results of this examination revealed that there were 121 cases of non-proliferative
diabetic retinopathy (15.89%); seven cases of proliferative diabetic retinophathy (0.92%); 15 cases of glaucoma (1.97%); 44 cases of presenile cataract (5.77%); and 156 cases
of senile cataract (20.45%).
The results of this study showed that DR could be found in the early years of diagnosis
as type 2 diabetic patients. The percentage of DR increased in relation to the number
of years after the patients were diagnosed as diabetic. Screening DR by examining pictures
from a fundus camera is appropriate for community hospitals and hospitals that
have no ophthalmologist because it could be performed in these hospitals and sent to the
ophthalmologist for diagnosing later. Therefore, using pictures from the fundus camera
to search for DR in diabetic patients would decrease a large number of patients who
should be examined directly by ophthalmologists.
