The newest' Critical Health product, RetmarkerDR, was launched on May 2009, during the EuRetina Congress in Nice, France.

RetmarkerDR is a Biomarker for Diabetic Retinopathy progression in a mild non-proliferative stage, predicting sight threatening Diabetic Retinopathy through the quantification of microaneurysms turnover ratios, namely for Clinically Significant Macular Edema.

One of the main advantages of RetmarkerDR is the capability to identify each microaneurysm as a single entity in a specific location, with identifiable coordinates, allowing for valuable information:

• Number of New MA during the follow-up period
• Number of MA that suffered occlusion during the
  follow-up period:
• Turnover ratios:
• MA Formation Rate
• MA Regression Rate

Even though Angiography is the gold standard in detection of microaneurysms, it is an invasive exam, not tolerated by all patients, that is why, just like RetmarkerC, RetmarkerDR uses retinographies, a non invasive tool easily performed in clinical practice and widely used in a screening context due to its low price and no side effects. Scientific evidences supported by our scientific partner have shown that retinographies have a reliable quantification on microaneurysm turnover in the initial stages of Diabetic Retinopathy when compared with Angiography.

With the microaneurysm turnover information, in a mild non proliferative stage of Diabetic Retinopathy, before the development of complications (either being diabetic macular edema or proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy) it is possible to predict the evolution of the disease for a Clinically Significant Macular Edema stage.
Recent findings from AIBILI supports that a follow-up at regular intervals (6 months suggested) in the early stages of diabetic retinopathy (before development of complications) can be used to predict the eyes that are at risk of progression into CSME.