Related Experiment Videos
Corneal epithelial fragility in diabetes mellitus
1Department of Ophthalmology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
Objective:
To assess corneal epithelial fragility in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and its association with retinopathy.
Design:
Survey.
Setting:
University-affiliated hospital in Chandigarh, India.
Subjects:
Seventy patients with NIDDM selected at random and 35 age-matched healthy control subjects recruited from hospital staff and their relatives.
Main Outcome Measure:
Corneal epithelial fragility, as measured with an esthesiometer.
Results:
Mean corneal epithelial fragility values were significantly higher for the diabetic subjects without retinopathy than for the control subjects (p < 0.05). The mean epithelial fragility values for the eyes with diabetic proliferative retinopathy and those with nonproliferative retinopathy were significantly higher (by 84% and 41% respectively) than the mean value for the diabetic subjects without retinopathy (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in mean epithelial fragility values between the proliferative and nonproliferative retinopathy groups.
Conclusions:
Eyes with diabetic retinopathy demonstrate increased corneal epithelial fragility.