Look deep into my eyes baby!!!

By Shilpa Nangali

Look into my eyes,
See the joy, see the fire.
See love's lost.
See the newness, see the end,
See a heart. See it break.
What can you see when you look into my eyes?
See the passion, see the laughter,
See our lives in a time when we still were.
See the love I still have
If you only would look into my eyes!

This is a poem by Ellen George. It is said that the eyes can be a mirror of one’s soul. Well, sometimes eyes may reveal more than what is in the heart! ;)

Actually, I was searching for this poem in Google and found something very interesting other than this poem.

Look deep into someone's eyes and know what is in their hearts or whether they will eventually get diabetes! Yeah, thinking that it is something crazy? Nope, it is science!

Yes, a new screening device that pinpoints early symptoms of impending eye disease is found to help doctors detect patients prone to diabetes. The instrument, designed by scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Centre, captures eye images to detect metabolic stress and tissue damage. The non-invasive device takes 5 mins to test both eyes. For diabetics, diagnosed or not, it potentially offers advantages over blood glucose testing, the "gold standard" for diabetes detection.

The technology measures a phenomenon called flavoprotein autofluorescence (FA), which is thought to be a reliable indicator of eye trouble. The device measures the intensity of cellular fluorescence in retinal tissue. A high level of such fluorescence -- or flavoprotein autofluorescence (FA) -- is a reliable indicator of eye disease. "The concept behind measuring FA in the retina is to determine whether there's a metabolic dysfunction in the retinal tissue," explained lead researcher Dr. Victor M. Elner, a professor in the University's Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

Victor M. Elner and Howard R. Petty, authors of the study, then measured the FA levels of 21 individuals who had diabetes and compared the results to age-matched healthy controls. The scientists found that FA activity was significantly higher for those with diabetes, regardless of severity, compared to those who did not have the disease.

Petty, a biophysicist and imaging expert, explained that hyperglycemia - or high blood sugar - is known to induce cell death in diabetic tissue soon after the onset of disease but before symptoms can be detected clinically. Petty also observed that unlike glucose monitoring, elevation of FA levels reflects ongoing tissue damage.

The findings of the study have appeared in the latest issue of the Journal Archives of Ophthalmology.

References: Times of India & Washington Post