Abstract

Our laboratory, as well as others (eg: Adams et al, 1982; Zisman and Adams, 1982; Greenstein et al, 1989) have reported that the short-wavelength sensitive (SWS) pathway is selectively compromised in diabetes. It is well known that the loss of short-wavelength system sensitivity, as well as the development of tritan (blue-yellow) defects are among the earliest visual changes in diabetes, often occurring in patients for whom clinical examination reveals no evidence of retinopathy. On the other hand, the degree of SWS sensitivity loss increases with the severity of retinopathy and is increased in the presence of macular edema (Adams et al, 1987; Greenstein et al, 1990). The changes in visual function are therefore assumed to be an indirect consequence of diabetes, resulting from the vascular damage and resulting retinal hypoxia caused by diabetes, rather than a direct action of metabolites on tissue function in an "acute" sense.

© 1991 Optical Society of America