Type 2 diabetes begins to affect vision before symptoms appear. Therefore, if vision deteriorates, it is worth checking for a tendency to develop diabetes.
Scientists have found that type 2 diabetes begins to affect vision significantly earlier than can be detected by standard ophthalmological methods. A study by a team from the University of Coimbra, published in the journal Eye and Vision, showed that even in the early stages of the disease, subtle structural changes occur in the retina that are not noticeable during a routine examination.
The authors used optical coherence tomography (OCT), but analyzed not only the thickness of the retinal layers but also their microstructure — the so-called "texture" of the image. It turned out that in the layers responsible for transmitting visual signals, the organization of tissue and functional characteristics change within 8–12 weeks after the onset of diabetes, even without obvious signs of diabetic retinopathy.
At the same time, the protective barrier of the retina remained intact, and the changes were so subtle that they could not be detected by traditional methods. According to the researchers, this indicates that diabetes begins to "restructure" the visual system long before vision deteriorates, and the eye may serve as an early indicator of metabolic disorders.
Scientists emphasize that this approach opens a new window for the early diagnosis of diabetic complications and allows for the identification of patients at increased risk of vision damage even before irreversible changes occur.
