Arc Light as an Alternative Approach to Diagnose Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) At Grass Root

Abstract

Purpose: To compare Arc Light and Direct Ophthalmoscope in diagnosing patients with normal eyes, patients having signs of Diabetic retinopathy and patients with other eye diseases.

Study Design: Quasi Experimental study.

Place and Duration of Study: Basic Health Units in Nishtar Town, Lahore in collaboration with Eye Department Lahore General Hospital, Lahore from Sep 2017 to Nov 2017.

Material and Methods: A total of 552 examinations (276 examinations with Ophthalmoscope and 276 examinations by using Arclight) were performed on 46 patients. All patients were selected using purposive sampling. The patients were examined by the Optometrist, Medical Officers (MO) and Ophthalmologists in sequence and findings of the selected patients were noted using Arc light and Ophthalmoscope on the prescribed format.

Results: We found that findings of medical officers for right eye and left eye using Arc Light had 50% and 54.9% agreement respectively with findings of Consultant who was gold standard in this study and more technical person in eye care. When Optometrist findings were compared with Consultant, they were excellent in terms of accuracy and level of agreement in findings of both users. When Consultant findings using Arc light were compared with Ophthalmoscope findings only one case was misdiagnosed through Arc light. Sensitivity and specificity of Arc light was 100% in right eye but it was reduced to 94.4% in left eye.

Conclusions: Arc Light is nearly as efficient tool as an Ophthalmoscope and provides comparable results during diabetic retinopathy examination.

Key-words: Arc Light, Direct Ophthalmoscope, Diabetic Retinopathy.