A study on central corneal thickness in diabetics and non – diabetics

Diabetes is one of the most leading causes of blindness with complications related to diabetic keratopathy (DK). This chronic metabolic stress makes changes in the endothelial cells of the cornea by loss in pleomorphism, corneal autofluorescence, degeneration of the cells due to stress leads to over hydration of the stroma leads to change in corneal thickness. The central corneal thickness is a sensitive indicator of corneal health and serves as an index for corneal hydration and metabolism. Accurate CCT measurement has diagnostic and therapeutic implications.Cross-sectional comparative study was done with 260 patients divided into two groups. Group 1 included patients with diabetes and group II patients without diabetes (Control group) of age group between 45 to 80 years who are attending Ophthalmology OPD in a time period of 2 months. Thorough history of patients was taken and underwent visual acuity testing, BCVA, IOP, fundus examination, HbA1c and CCT measurement using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT).Mean CCT in diabetic population was 560.38±44.51 µm, while in control group was 500.32±39.63 µm with statistically significant p value of <0.001. Correlation analysis shows duration of diabetes and HbA1c shows significant relation and age doesn’t show any correlation with CCT.Our study demonstrates that individuals with diabetes mellitus or increased levels of HbA1c had higher CCT, regardless of age or gender. This signifies that CCT was influenced by prolonged increased levels of blood glucose.