Evaluation and comparison of subjective and objective anterior ocular surface damage in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and dry eye disease

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate anterior ocular surface damage in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and dry eye disease in comparison to non-diabetic controls based on conjunctival impression cytology, objective scales (Efron, Oxford) and OSDI, to correlate vision-related quality of life with grades of squamous metaplasia in T2DM patients suffering from DED.

Methods All participants underwent complete ophthalmologic examination including Shirmer test, TBUT, conjunctival/corneal staining (Oxford scheme), evaluation of conjunctival redness (Efron grading scale), and conjunctival impression cytology (Nelson’s scale). The OSDI questionnaire was completed by both groups of patients to assess severity of DED and QoL.

Results Squamous metaplasia was observed in 94% of the study group and 19.3% of controls (p = 0.0000). Based on the OSDI scores, 73.5% of patients reported mild DED and 26.5% suffered from moderate DED in the study group. The mean OSDI score for the study group with Nelson’s grade 2 was 18 ± 3.52 and 20.8 ± 4.68 for Nelson’s grade 3, respectively (p = 0.0745). Hence, no significant difference in QoL between grade 2 and grade 3 of squamous metaplasia was observed in patients of the study group.

Conclusion Impression cytology is a reliable minimally invasive tool for an accurate evaluation of the ocular surface damage in patients with DED and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Severe squamous metaplasia (Nelson’s grade 3) was observed in 29.4% (10/34) of T2DM patients. In contrast, it was not detected in the control group (p = 0.0032). The absence of goblet cells in T2DM patients nether significantly reduces QoL nor contributes to the subjective DED severity (OSDI) due to complex pathways leading to DED. Thus, diagnosis of DED severity should not be solely based on subjective symptoms in this population.