20.9% Of patients who have been revised the retina have discovered pathologies that they ignored.

-More than 1,000 users have have visited during the first 4 weeks of the OPTretina project for the prevention of blindness in Spain

-6.8% of patients diagnosed with any pathology were referred to the ophthalmologist urgently

Barcelona, March of 2013.- during the first 4 weeks of the campaign for the prevention of blindness of OPTretina in Spainmore than 1000 users have gone through different lenses attached to a retinal analysis.

Of these first 1000 patients, with an average age of 45.3 years, a 20.9% have been diagnosed with various pathologies that was ignored by the patient. The pathologies observed in these first patients have been, above all, the early stages of AMD (macular degeneration age) 37.3% of the cases, and diabetic retinopathy in a 7.5%. These diseases are the root causes of the blindness in our country, although it must be emphasized that the 2 diseases, if they are diagnosed and treated at time, do not have because end in blindness.

Telemedicine using OPTretina allows to offer the patient from an optician’s, a maximum of 48 hours, a diagnostic evaluation of your retina by an expert retinologo and a recommendation to let the patient know if you must go to the specialist of urgent, preferential or ordinary form.

Remember that 80% of the cases of blindness in Spain can be avoided and the most common causes of this percentage are AMD and diabetic retinopathy ” says the doctor Miguel Angel Zapata, Coordinator of OPTretina, Deputy of ophthalmology at the Hospital de la Vall d ’ Hebron in BarcelonaHead of the Department of Retina in the Institut Oftalmològic de Girona and Medical Director of Diagsum. In many cases these pathologies go unnoticed in a first stage, just as the prevention could avoid that they end in blindness. Approaching the possibility of detection the optical centres will, undoubtedly, the avoidance of many cases of blindness in our country ”, concludes.

Along with the first data obtained in the campaign, the 209 patients who were diagnosed with a disease, 6.8% were referred urgently to the ophthalmologist, a 23.85% did so preferably (between 2-3 weeks) and 69.4% did this in ordinary way.

are very pleased of the reception that is taking the campaign really is exceeding our expectations. But we are especially glad to be detecting pathologies patients that, thanks to the revision, you can treat in time and not end up suffering blindness ” says Dr. Zapata

in Spain there are currently more than 3.400.000 diabetic with a growth of 5% annually, and many of them are susceptible to diabetic retinopathythe leading cause of blindness in patients under 50 years of age. Many diabetic associations are demanding the creation of protocols for the prevention of the disease, because there is none. In the case of degeneration macular age (AMD), which is the leading cause of blindness in over 50 years (there are 3 million people at risk of suffering), also there is this need.

OPTretina

OPT retina is the first network of optical optometrists for prevention of diseases of the retina. Formed by a group of experts retinologos and more than 50 optical uses, pioneer in Spain, the telemedicine to diagnose possible disease of the retina through the optics.

OPTretina was created with the support of the official College of opticians optometrists and opticians Optometrists in Catalonia, the College of opticians Optometrists of Valencia and the Spanish Federation of diabetic patients (FEDE), among other associations.

In addition the project continues with the line of the philosophy of the project VISION 2020: the right to sight ” a project led by the World Health Organization (who) and the International Agency for the Blindness Prevention (IABP), which aims to eradicate blindness which can prevent and educate the world about these diseases.