Changes in the corneal endothelium in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and its relation to time of evolution and glycated hemoglobin

Background and objective: 50% of patients with diabetes mellitus develop an ophthalmological disease, particularly, corneal alterations.This studyaims to determine the effect of diabetes mellitus on the corneal endothelium by specular microscopy regarding the patient´s glycated hemoglobin and years of evolution.Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study of patients with diabetes mellitus who came for medical examination between 2016 and 2021.Patients with specular microscopy and blood test were included.An analysis was carried out according to glycated hemoglobin and years of evolution of diabetes mellitus, as well as a correlation analysis between age, glycated hemoglobin, years of evolution of diabetes mellitus, and corneal parameters.Results: 720 patients were evaluated, and 63 were included.An analysis was carried out by age, glycated hemoglobin, and years of evolution with diabetes mellitus.It was observed that corneal thickness decreases as glycated hemoglobin (p = 0.005) increases and years with diabetes mellitus (p = 0.0171).Age presented a positive correlation with minimum cellularity area (p = 0.0069), average cellularity (p = 0.0004), and standard deviation cellularity (p = 0.0284), and a negative correlation with cell density (p = 0.0009).Conclusions: The evolution of diabetes mellitus and levels of glycated hemoglobin generate changes in corneal thickness that must be taken into account for patient follow-up.