الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Diabetes mellitus (DM) affects every part of the body, and the eye is not an exception. It is a major cause of visual loss in the working-age population worldwide. Even though retinopathy is the most common sequel and most widely studied association of DM, other structures of the eye are not immune and get affected in various stages of the disease. Patients with DM are prone to developing corneal endothelial damage, such as endothelial defects, punctate epithelial keratopathy, recurrent corneal erosions and persistent epithelial defects. Indeed, although diabetic keratopathy (DK) is often subclinical, it may occur in up to 70% of patients with DM. Considering the indispensable role of corneal endothelium in maintaining corneal clarity, several researchers have investigated the possible alterations that take place in endothelium in patients with DM. A damaged endothelium results in corneal oedema, and increased central corneal thickness (CCT), among other causative factors. This increase has been documented in patients with DM as compared with healthy controls in a large number of studies. Some studies have shown a significant correlation of CCT to the duration of DM, whereas a study conducted by Choo et al., (5) showed no correlation of the duration of DM, glycosylated hemoglobin (HBA1c) level, and severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR) with any of the corneal morphological parameters. The other parameters like coefficient of variation (CV), endothelial cell density (ECD), and hexagonality of cells (Hex) have also been a focus of interest in many studies, but the results have been inconsistent. Interestingly, very few studies have analyzed the association of the severity of DR and the duration of DM with the altered corneal endothelial parameters. A recent study by El-Agami et al found no significant changes in these parameters with the severity of DR, and no correlation with duration of DM, HbA1c, and DR severity. So, the aim of this study was to evaluate the association of severity of diabetic retinopathy with corneal endothelial and thickness changes in diabetic patients. To elucidate our aim, this study was a cross section case control study conducted on 46 eyes of both genders with diabetes mellitus and healthy to evaluate the association of severity of diabetic retinopathy with corneal endothelial and thickness changes in diabetic patients. at ophthalmology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, during the period time from April 2022 to December 2022. |