Three lecturers at al-Zahraa College of Medicine Dr Raghda S. Al-Najjar, Dr Nehaya Mnahi Al-Aubody and Dr Majid Al-Abood published a research paper entitled (pattern-Reversal Visual Evoked potentials Tests in Persons with type 2 Diabetes mellitus with and without Diabetic Retinopathy ) within a journal indexed by Scopus. The study aimed to find any early changes in the examination of visual potential induced by the reflex pattern of patients with type 2 diabetes who do not have clinically documented changes in diabetic retinopathy and to compare the results with the results of normal subjects and persons with diabetic retinopathy.

The study revealed the existence of a preclinical stage of diabetic retinopathy most likely as conduction dysfunction, affecting mainly central vision before any clear clinical changes of diabetic retinopathy exist. Therefore, examining the visual effort induced by the reflex pattern can be used as a screening method to find the early effects of diabetes on the retina and the optic nerve.