Eyesight and vision > Examination of the eye > Eye exam and test

Your eyes tell you not only about whether your vision is good or bad but also about your health in general. They can be regarded as windows through which a doctor can assess your general health. Besides the eyes no other organ enables such an easy examination of the state of your veins and arteries. Many metabolic disorders exhibit on blood vessels and therefore the eyes play a crucial role in early diagnosis. Your eyes can exhibit the early symptoms of diseases which can influence your sight. Therefore regular eye examinations are important even though you do not have problems with your sight. Your eyes tell the story about your health and the information can be interpreted only by your ophthalmologist. During eye examination he focuses on these symptoms:

Headaches

Headaches can have also other than external causes (for example changes in weather). Headaches, namely in the area of eyes and forehead, can be sometimes caused by serious diseases. The causes can vary from the inflammation of nasal cavity, unknown form of carcinoma, glaucoma to functional disorders of ocular muscles which can be closely connected with strabismus.

All of this increases the importance of determining and treating the causes of headaches. During regular eye examinations your ophthalmologist will be interested mainly in symptoms of following diseases.

Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Irregularities and narrowed blood vessels are one of the first symptoms that point out to high blood pressure. Eye examination performed by your ophthalmologist provides the information not only about your sight but also serves as a preventive examination of hypertension.

Diabetes

Do you sometimes have a feeling of sultriness and thirst? Is your vision temporarily worse from time to time and you lose or gain some weight? Then something is wrong. Your retina can exhibit some clues. Tiny circular retinal hemorrhages, tiny convex retinal blood vessels or sediments known as wooly deposits could be the symptoms of diabetes. Temporary changes in vision caused by changes in the level of sugar in the blood could be yet another symptom of diabetes. A visit to your ophthalmologist can give you an explanation.

Stroke

If you suffer from hypertension, you have to be sure that the treatment will eliminate rapid increases in blood pressure during whole day. The retina can provide some important information about it. It enables to assess whether it would not be appropriate to thoroughly monitor your health because of the risk of stroke. Specific changes in the shape of retinal blood vessels and their narrowing could be found during examination. This finding can be the reason for other examinations and treatment which can decrease the risk of stroke.

Higher level of cholesterol

Do you love good food? Who does not. But what about your level of cholesterol in the blood? Lipids attach to the wall of blood vessels and can change their structure. Sclerosis and obstruction of blood vessels caused by lipid deposits can be the cause of heart diseases or heart attack. Early diagnosis of high levels of cholesterol and other lipids in the blood can help to decrease the risk of above mentioned diseases and prolong your life.

Sclerosis multiplex

Double vision, disorders of the visual field and uncoordinated unwanted movements of the eyes can be early symptoms of sclerosis multiplex.

However, eye examination alone cannot substitute other examinations done by other specialists even though it can provide some important information about your health.