Abstract
Hypertension or high blood pressure remains a serious problem not only here in the USA but worldwide as well. In the USA, almost one in three adults are afflicted with high blood pressure (National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2008) while in Europe, it is the leading cause of long-term medical care (Special Eurobarometer, Health in the European Union, September 2007). There are varied incidences of hypertension in country with some areas having up to 50 % of the chronically treated population being treated for this condition. The sequelae of hypertension include stroke, cardiac disease, renal disease, and loss of vision to name but a few. Hypertension affecting the eye is known as hypertensive retinopathy and can cause vision loss in a number of ways. The various ways hypertension can affect the eye will be described herein.
Diabetes is the leading cause of new blindness in the USA among adults aged 20–74 (National Society to Prevent Blindness. Vision problems in the US: a statistical analysis. New York: National Society to Prevent Blindness, 1980). Given its propensity to affect relatively young adults in the prime of their working lives’, with long duration of expected survival, the economic and social cost to our society is terribly high. A known or recently diagnosed diabetic patient who complains of visual distortion, “blurry vision,” or “floaters” must be taken very seriously, as it may herald the development of what may be or become irreversible blindness. Furthermore, diabetic eye disease is closely associated with other serious end-organ damage (i.e., chronic renal insufficiency, peripheral neuropathy, and coronary artery disease) (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research Group. The effect of intensive treatment of diabetes on the development and progression of long-term complications in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. N Engl J Med. 1993;329:936–77). The various ocular diseases caused by diabetes will be discussed at length.
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Lazzaro, D.R., Shrier, E. (2012). Hypertension, Diabetes, and the Eye. In: McFarlane, S., Bakris, G. (eds) Diabetes and Hypertension. Contemporary Diabetes. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-357-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-357-2_8
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