Tear film instability in diabetic patients
Keywords:
tears, dry eye, diabeticAbstract
Background: The clinical association of diabetes mellitus with dry eye and ocular surface disease is becoming more frequent. The increase in the number of patients with this association is expected following the recent rise in newly diagnosed cases of diabetes mellitus and the awareness of real complaints of diabetic patients from dry eye and ocular surface discomfort.
Aims of the study: To investigate the changes of tear film and ocular surface in diabetic patients.
Design and method: A case control study carried out in the eye clinic of Al-Sadr Teaching hospital in holy Najaf city for 12 months. It included 100 eyes of fifty patients of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (Cases) and 100 eyes of fifty healthy individual (Controls) attending the outpatient Department (OPD) of Ophthalmology. Diabetes was diagnosed by the criteria in the department of Diabetes center. After exclusion of patients with history of systemic diseases with ocular manifestations affecting tear secretion, abnormalities in the cornea, conjunctiva, or eyelid, and secondary ocular and systemic disease, the remaining diabetic cases are 72 and control cases are 89. The control group consists of healthy individuals attending eye outpatient department (OPD) for the errors of refraction and senile cataract and all were non-diabetics and their age were comparable. Different symptoms included; character of irritation whether it was burning, foreign body sensation or sand gritty feeling. Any diurnal variation of symptoms at a particular time of day, like on awakening or in late evening. All the individuals underwent routine general physical examination and thorough ophthalmological examination followed by measuring tear film meniscus height, tear film breakup time (BUT), presence or absence of tear film debris.
Results: There is significant difference between diabetics and non-diabetics in presence of normal or abnormal tear meniscus height. There is also significant difference between diabetics and non-diabetics regarding normal and abnormal tear film breakup time. However, there are no significant differences between diabetic and control group in the presence or absence of tear film debris.
Conclusion: Tear film stability is decreased in diabetic patients. These results suggest that diabetic patients are more prone to suffering from dry eye symptoms than normal subjects.
Keyword: Tear, diabetic, dry eye.
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