Effect of diabetic retinopathy on corneal endothelial parameters: An analytical cross- sectional study

Abstract Background: To investigate the possible effect of different types of diabetic retinopathy (DR) on corneal endothelium cells in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.Methods: In this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study, corneal endothelium parameters including endothelial cell density (ECD), average cell size (AVG), coefficient of variation in cell size (CV), and hexagonality (Hex) were evaluated by non-contact specular microscopy.Results: One hundred and thirty-four eyes of 134 diabetic patients including 77 females (57.5%) with a mean age of 61.03 ± 8.08 years were enrolled. The overall corneal parameters in diabetic patients with and without retinopathy were not significantly different (P>0.05). There is a significant relationship between CV and the duration of the disease with age variable control (B= 0.369, p-value <0.001)Conclusions: In type-2 DM patients without and with DR, corneal endothelial parameters were not a statistically significant difference. There is a significant relationship between CV and the duration of the disease with age variable control.