Differences in corneal thickness and corneal endothelium related to duration in diabetes.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated the differences of corneal thickness and corneal endothelial morphology in diabetes compared with age-matched, healthy control subjects; in addition, we tested for correlation according to the duration of diabetes.


METHODS
Ultrasound pachymetry and noncontact specular microscopy were performed on 200 patients with diabetes and 100 control subjects. We compared the values for diabetics and normal persons with ANACOVA to adjust for age. Moreover, we examined the correlation between the subject parameters and the duration of diabetes by using a partial correlation coefficient that controlled for age.


RESULTS
The diabetic subjects had thicker corneas, less cell density and hexagonality, and more irregular cell size of the corneal endothelium than did the controls (P < 0.05). Central corneal thickness and the coefficient of variation for cell size were significantly higher for diabetes of over 10 years' duration than for diabetes of under 10 years' duration (P < 0.05). The endothelial cell density and percentage of hexagonal cells were lower for diabetes of over 10 years' duration than for diabetes of under 10 years' (P > 0.05). Central corneal thickness was correlated with duration of diabetes (P < 0.05), but corneal endothelial morphology was not (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Those patients with diabetic duration of over 10 years have more corneal morphological abnormalities, especially the coefficient of variation in cell size, compared with the normal subjects. The central corneal thickness was significantly correlated with diabetic duration after controlling for age.
Lee
J S
JS
The Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Korea. jongsool@pusan.ac.kr
Oum
B S
BS
Choi
H Y
HY
Lee
J E
JE
Cho
B M
BM
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D048429:Cell Size; D003315:Cornea / Q000473:pathology*; D019781:Corneal Topography / Q000379:methods; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000473:pathology*; D004728:Endothelium, Corneal / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors