Study of impact of diabetes mellitus on corneal central thickness and endothelial parameters in Indian eyes

Aim: The purpose of the study is to find the impact of diabetes mellitus on central thickness and endothelial parameters of cornea when compared with non diabetic patients and in relation to duration of disease and glycaemic control. Study Design: Prospective, Observational and quantitative study. Materials and Methods: Study included 125 patients (125 eyes) with diabetes mellitus and 143 controls (143 eyes). Tomey specular non-contact microscope (EM 3000) was used to measure central corneal thickness (CCT), endothelial cell density (ECD), coefficient of variation of cell size (CV) and percentage of hexagonal endothelial cells (6A). Results: Comparison of age matched controls with diabetics did not show any statistical significance with respect to CCT, ECD and CV. 6A showed some significant change (p value= 0.02) between controls and diabetics. There was no significant correlation with respect to the duration of diabetes and glycaemic control. Conclusion: Corneal endothelial parameters and thickness did not show any statistical significance between diabetics and controls except hexagonality of endothelial cells which was significant. Moreover there was statistically no difference based on duration of the disease, glycaemic control and presence or absence of retinopathy.