I am happy and honored to introduce Dr. Chris Renner as a contributor to RetinaEyeDoctor.com! He and I practice closely together in Northern Virginia. I asked him to write about Low Vision. - "Randy" What is Low Vision? The great advances in treatment of eye disease have prevented many cases of blindness, however, many patients suffer partial visual loss and are left with reduced … [Read more...]
A1C Now Used to Diagnose Diabetes
January 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The American Diabetes Association now recommends basing the diagnosis of diabetes upon the hemoglobin A1C levels and not on fasting glucose tests. In addition, an A1C of less than 7.0% should be the target for glucose control. How with this impact the treatment of diabetic retinopathy? The change in recommendations stems from the fact that the A1C blood test is an easier, and faster, test … [Read more...]
Standard of Care vs. FDA Approved – How We Choose a Treatment
January 13, 2010 By 8 Comments
Avastin® is not FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved for treating wet macular degeneration, but it is the standard of care for treating the disease. The FDA has given approval for Avastin to be used to treat a variety of cancers, but nothing about eyes. What is Standard of Care? Standard of care is the treatment that another prudent healthcare professional, of similar backgrounds … [Read more...]
Blood in the Retina: You Make the Call
January 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A patient of mine returned this morning with complaints of decreased vision in the right eye. She is 84 years old, has a history of smoking and noted some "blurriness" in the right eye for the past few months. With both eyes open, however, she sees pretty well. The first thing we did was examine her. This is a retinal photograph of the right eye. What do you see? There is blood … [Read more...]
