Ocular Surface Characteristics in Diabetic Children.

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Endocrinology
• Pediatrics

Background:

• Pediatric diabetes is a growing concern with potential systemic complications.
• Ocular surface health is crucial for visual function and comfort.
• Dry eye disease is a common condition affecting individuals of all ages.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare tear film osmolarity (TFO) and other dry eye diagnostic tests between children with diabetes and healthy children.
• To investigate potential associations between ocular surface parameters and diabetes control.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involving 26 diabetic children and 20 healthy children.
• Ocular surface assessment included Tear Osmolarity (TFO), Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI), corneal epithelial thickness (CET) via OCT, tear film break-up time (TFBUT), Schirmer test, meibography, and conjunctival cytology.
• Statistical analysis was performed to compare results between groups and correlate with HbA1c levels.

Main Results:

• Diabetic children exhibited significantly higher TFO (328.8 ± 12.8) compared to healthy controls (313.6 ± 15.1) (p=0.001).
• Schirmer test scores were significantly lower in diabetic children (16.7 ± 5.1) versus controls (23.6 ± 5.6) (p=0.00).
• Conjunctival cytology revealed more significant changes in diabetic children (p=0.004), with TFO levels positively correlated with HbA1c (r=0.459, p=0.018).

Conclusions:

• Diabetic children demonstrate significantly altered ocular surface parameters, including elevated TFO and reduced tear production.
• Changes in conjunctival cytology are more prevalent in diabetic children, suggesting inflammatory or adaptive responses.
• Increased TFO may be a contributing factor to the observed ocular surface alterations in pediatric diabetes.