The significance of the ophthalmoscopic changes associated with diabetes and with hypertension is of perennial interest. There is still controversy as to the existence of a specific diabetic retinopathy. Some authorities, impressed by the undeniable resemblances between the retinal changes associated wth diabetes and those accompanying hypertension, the rarity of such changes in young diabetic patients and the relative frequency of retinopathy in diabetic persons with hypertension, are satisfied that diabetic retinopathy is simply hypertensive, or even arteriosclerotic, retinitis somewhat modified by its appearance in a diabetic patient.
As one who takes the opposite view, I should like to present the picture of diabetic retinopathy as an entity by comparing and contrasting the lesions of this disorder with lesions associated with hypertension.
The fundus picture of diabetes and that of hypertension are composed of the same elements—vascular changes, hemorrhages and exudates—exudates—and superficially are somewhat similar, but closer examination