The near reflex evaluation in diabetic patients without retinopathy

To evaluate accommodative amplitude (AA) and fusional vergence amplitudes (FVA) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients without diabetic retinopathy (DR).

This study of 30 type 2 diabetic patients aged 35-50 years and 31 healthy subjects analyzed FVA, objective AA measurement and statistical evaluation. The study also evaluated the effects of mean HbA1c, age, and DM duration on AA.

The groups were similar in age (P=0.535). There were statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of mean convergence amplitude at distance (P=0.003), divergence amplitude (P=0.002) and mean convergence amplitude at near (P=0.001). Mean divergence amplitude at near (P=0.063) and near convergence point measurements (P=0.586) were not statistically different. AA was 0.52±0.3D in the DM group and 0.88±0.4D in the control group (P<0.001). Age was negatively correlated with AA in both groups (r1=-0.492, P1=0.003 and r2=-0.844, P2<0.001). Multivariate regression analysis showed that age influenced AA in patients with an R² value of 0.179 (P=0.044).

Compared to healthy controls, type 2 DM patients without DR had lower accommodative and convergence amplitudes, suggesting that type 2 DM patients may develop presbyopia at an earlier age.