Common tests for the diagnosis of retinopathy and macular edemas are dilated eye exam, opthalmoscopy and if needed fluorescein angiography.
Retinopathy and macular edema diagnosis tests
- Visual acuity test – normal eye chart test to measures your ability to see at various distances.
- Dilated eye exam – eye drops are useful to dilate (enlarge), the pupils. This makes room to the eye care professional to see more of the inside of the eyes to examine retina and optic nerve damage if any and other eye problems. After this eye exam, close-up vision may continue to be blurring for hours due to the effect of eye drop.
- Tonometry is to measure the pressure inside the eye. Numbing eye drops may be useful for this test.
- Ophthalmoscopy, doctor uses a special instrument wearing a headset with a bright light and examines your eye’s retina through a magnifying glass.
- Fluorescein angiography (FA) your eye-care professional suggests this test only if they believe you have macular edema. This test uses a small quantity of a special fluorescein dye to inject into a vein, and take the pictures. This test is useful to pinpoint the area of the leak in a blood vessel. Usually do this test as an outpatient procedure.
Eye care professional diagnoses your retina with the early signs of the disease, including:
- Blood vessels leaking
- Retina swelling - macular edema
- Fatty deposits on the retina, signs of leaking blood vessels
- Damaged nerve tissue