Op-power in diabetic retinopathy

The present study is mainly concerned with the role of the OPs in diagnosing early diabetic retinopathy. In 1966 Simonsen had already found a clear relation between background diabetic retinopathy and the disappearance of OPs at the ascending limb of the b-wave of the ERG. Many investigators have studied this relationship ever since, but because of a deficiency in a quantification measure of the OPs, the clinical application has been unsatisfactory. Recent developments involving digitalising of the ERG signal and the accompanying related increase in signal processing techniques, nowadays offer us the opportunity of developing a reliable system of OP quantification. Diabetic retinopathy is characterized by multiple vascular lesions of the eye fundus. The clinical course is quite variable, but one or another feature may predominate the fundus picture at a given time. The knowledge of the pathogenesis in diabetic retinopathy remains incomplete as yet; as does the precise cell localisation of OPs and their relation to diabetic retinopathy. As long as this knowledge is incomplete a classification and measurement system of the retinal function in this disease will be defective.