Correlation of dry eye and diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and various studies have shown that people with diabetes are more prone to suffer from dry eye disease than those without diabetes. This study was undertaken with the aim to find the prevalence of dry eye disease in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus and to find the correlation between glycemic control and prevalence of dry eye.This study was carried out over a period of one year and cases of type 2 diabetes were selected from patients attending the out patient department. Diagnosis of dry eye was made if OSDI Score was more than 12 with one of the positive specific tests for dry eye.A total of 180 eyes of 100 patients were included in the study. It was noted that with increasing age the chance of dry eye increase. Our study found that with increased duration of diabetes, the chance of developing dry eye increases, and poor glycemic control increases the severity of dry eye. The severity of diabetes has a positive correlation with goblet cell loss and morphological changes in conjunctival impression cytology.It is established in our study that there is a positive correlation between prevalence of dry eye and poor glycemic control in a patient of diabetes. Since, the prevalence of dry eye in a hospital-based study with limited sample is significant hence the prevalence in the community must be higher and needs attention.