Correlation of lipid profile with tobacco use in cataract patients

Introduction: Human beings are blessed with five special senses and vision is the most precious. Cataract is the major cause of a visual impairment. Tobacco use is a modifiable risk factor for cataract. Dyslipidemia is associated with wide range of eye diseases. Therefore, we intended to study the relationship between the lipid profile and tobacco use in various forms of cataracts. Materials and Method: The study was carried out on 156 cataract patients aged 45 to 65 years. It comprised of two groups: tobacco user group (78 patients) and tobacco non user group (78 patients). A complete ophthalmic examination was done and fasting serum lipid profile was estimated. Information on tobacco use was collected through the questionnaire. Results: In this study, it was found that High Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) was lower in tobacco user group (P<0.05) than the tobacco nonuser group. Tobacco user group had higher values of Very Low Density Lipoproteins cholesterol (VLDL-c) (P<0.05) and Triglycerides (TG) (P<0.05) as compared to tobacco nonuser group. There is significant difference in various forms of cataract (P<0.05) between tobacco user group and tobacco nonuser group. However, no significant difference was found in total cholesterol, HDL-c, VLDL-c, TG and Low Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) in various forms of cataract irrespective of tobacco use. Conclusion: The study shows that tobacco use adversely affects lipid profile and it is significantly associated with nuclear and cortical cataract. However, there is no association was found between the lipid profile and different forms of cataract. As our sample size was small, further study with larger sample size is required to find out correlation