This small, compact work summarizes the natural history and biochemical and pathological investigations of ocular disease in diabetes. Because of the increasing frequency of these complications, which produce blindness in 10,000 people annually in England and Wales alone, clinicians should find it valuable.
Although only 7% of aphakia is caused by diabetic retinopathy, half the book is devoted to this problem. That its pathogenesis involves deposition of glycoprotein, causing thickening of the basement membrane, is suspected but still unproved. Since the disease correlates with the duration of diabetes, it must be considered part of the associated microangiopathy syndrome. Half of patients having malignant retinopathy die after five years, usually of renal disease.
Two thirds of the patients with retinopathy subjected to pituitary ablation either show improved vision or their condition fails to deteriorate as rapidly as prior to surgery. Laser photocoagulation is now employed in treating new blood-vessel growth. A