(Newswire.net — June 27, 2013) Green Valley, AZ — One of the most important specialized activities of an optometrist is to ensure the health of a patient’s retina. Many important eye diseases as well as systemic diseases can be detected in the health status of the retina. The retina is the part of the eye that controls how we see the world around us. While your eyes may or may not be the “windows to your soul”, your retina can certainly be described as a window to your body’s overall health. With its new retinal scan technology called the Optomap, Dr. Christine Bartoletti and the team of optometrists at Vista Eye Care can now look inside your retina like never before and detect underlying health problems.
Optometrists perform retinal evaluations on all patients to check their general eye health, but this new technology has the power to see much more than what is on the surface. “This newest technology utilizes a laser to focus light giving us insight into the patient’s retina at a very detailed level,” reported Dr. Bartoletti of Vista Eye Care. “We can see the health of cells and the vascular system of the eye which are strong predictors of current and future diseases, many of which can be caught and treated before significant damage is done.”
The retina also provides evidence of other systemic diseases. “We can see indications or symptoms of high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and diabetes,” stated Dr. Samantha Nogales, part of the optometric team at Vista Eye Care. While a traditional ophthalmoscope allows the optometrist to see only 10 degrees of the retina at any given time, the new Optomap technology allows us to see almost the entire retina and capture a highly detailed image of 280 degrees of the retina in one picture. Additionally, the high-resolution digital images can be easily stored for later use in the patient’s care. “This provides us with a baseline of patients’ retinal health and we can refer back to this at other points during their care to see if the retina is deteriorating or maintaining health by referring back to this baseline,” said Dr. Bartoletti. “Because it produces a high resolution picture, I am also able to show my patients exactly what I am seeing so that they can understand their eye’s health or pathology.”
Optomap retinal scan technology is now available at Vista Eye Care and is part of the comprehensive eye examination provided at the practice.
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For further information about Retina scans and retinal health, please contact:
560 East Continental Road Suite 104
Green Valley, AZ 85614
(520)625-5673