ABSTRACT

Study Objectives: To determine the relationship of central corneal thickness with the status of diabetic retinopathy and level of HbA1c in diabetic patients.

Study Design and Settings: Department of Ophthalmology, Allied Hospital/DHQ Hospital, Faisalabad Pakistan from Jan 2021 to June 2021.

Patients and Methods: Out of the patients visiting OPD, 100 patients with clinically diagnosed type 2 DM which satisfied the range of selected standards and offered written informed agreement were involved in the research with the use of simple random sampling. Snellen’s visual acuity chart for distance vision and Jaeger’s chart for near vision were used to determine the best-corrected visual acuity. Wet Refraction and axial length was measured using A-scan. Goldmann applanation tonometry was used to measure the intraocular pressure.

Results of the Study: In this research sixty two percent of the patients were men and thirty eight percent patients were women. Total 84 patients had type 2 DM of duration 5-10 years, and the remaining 16 patients had diabetes for over 10 years. Total 35 patients had HbA1c between 4-5.6%, 31 patients had HbA1c between 5.7- 6.5% and 34 patients had HbA1c ≥ 6.5%. From 100 patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, 21 patients had no diabetic retinopathy, 28 patients had very minor and minor NPDR, 25 patients had average NPDR, 19 patients had critical and very acute NPDR and 7 patients had PDR. The mean HbA1c in patients with no diabetic retinopathy was 5.05%. The mean HbA1c in patients having minor and very little NPDR remained 5.64%. The mean HbA1c in patients with moderate NPDR was 6.36%. The mean HbA1c in patients with critical and very acute NPDR was 8.26%. The mean HbA1c in patients with severe PDR was 9.86%. This was a statistically significant survey (P-value = 0.01).

Conclusion: This study showed a strong correlation between the central corneal thickness to the severity of diabetic retinopathy and HbA1c levels emphasizes the importance of evaluation of corneal endothelial morphology in the early screening and diagnosis of microvascular complications of DM