Detection of diabetic retinopathy by optometrists

Optometrists examined 25 eyes with varying severity of diabetic retinopathy. No history or clinical information was provided to the optometrists who performed fundus examinations on dilated eyes using direct or indirect ophthalmoscopes. Color stereoscopic fundus photographs were independently graded and used as the standard. Optometrists made a correct diagnosis of whether retinopathy was present in 77% of the eyes (95% confidence interval (CI): 73%, 82%). They made a correct diagnosis of the type and degree of diabetic retinopathy in 57% of the eyes (95% CI: 39%, 75%). This diagnosis rate exceeded the rate reported for physician examiners (39%) and equaled that of general ophthalmologists (52%) in the only other similar study. Sensitivity for diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy in eyes of diabetic patients using only ophthalmoscopy was 74% (95% CI: 67%, 81%), while specificity for diagnosis of the absence of retinopathy was 84% (95% CI: 73%, 96%). 100% of these optometrists would have referred the eye with preproliferative retinopathy. 53% would have referred the eye classified as proliferative retinopathy without high risk characteristics, and 79% would have referred the eye with macular edema.