Now eyes will help the doctors to detect patients prone to diabetes. A new screening device is designed by scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Centre. It will take images of eyes and detect metabolic stress and tissue damage.  Thus the new device will give symptoms of eye diseases and these symptoms will be used to find diabetes prone persons.

The screening device tests both eyes in five minutes. It measures the intensity of cellular fluorescence in retinal tissue. The high level of fluorescence indicates eye disease.

The author of study Mr. Victor M. Elner and Howard R. Petty measured the FA levels of 21 people with diabetes disease. They further compared the results with healthy people. It was found that FA activity was significantly higher in diabetes patients compared to healthy people.

A biophysicist and imaging expert Mr. Petty said that blood sugar kills diabetic tissue as person get diabetes but the symptoms of diabetes can be found before its onset by FA. FA method offers advantages over the blood glucose testing method of diabetes detection as it also reflects ongoing tissue damage.

Scientists hope that the device will help to address growing public health concerns due to diabetes. The findings are published in the July issue of the journal Archives of Ophthalmology.