Abstract:

Objective: To compare the dry eye symptoms and findings with the age and sex matched healthy control group in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) Materials and Methods: Seventy-five people with similar features in terms of age and gender were included in the study. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to the presence and stage of diabetes. Group 1 consisted of 25 people with healthy control group, group 2 25 people with diabetes with no sign of retinopathy and 25 people with group 3 diabetic retinopathy. Ocular surface disease index (OSDI) scoring, schirmer test (<5mm / 5min), tear break-up time (GKZ, <10 sec), fluorescein corneal staining were evaluated. Kruskal Wallis test was used for statistical analysis of 3 different independent samples, Mann Whitney U test was used for 2 independent samples and Spearman's test for correlation analysis. p <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The OSDI scores were 15.9 ± 11.1 in the group 1, 14.5 ± 13.1 in the group 2 and 17.7 ± 15.5 in the group 3. Schirmer test without anesthesia was found to be 16.4 ± 10.6 / 5 min in group 1, 14.2 ± 9.9 / 5min in group 2 and 13.7 ± 8.9 / 5min in group 3. There were no significant differences between the 3 groups in Schirmer and OSDI scores. In addition, the year of diabetes and glycated hemoglobin (hbA1c) did not make any difference. GKZ under 10 seconds was recorded as 2 people in group 1, 10 people in group 2 and 10 people in group 3. The difference between group 1 and group 2 and 3 was statistically significant (p <0.017). In the corneal staining test with fluorescein, the presence of corneal 5 and above punctate was 3 in group 1, in group 2 in 10 and in group 3 in 9. There was a significant difference between groups 1 and 2 (p <0.025), between group 1 and 3 (p <0.049). Conclusion: There was no difference in schirmer and OSDİ score tests in diabetic patients. The meaning of dry eye was found to be different in patients with corneal staining and GKZ diabetes compared to the control group.

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