Straylight, lens yellowing and aberrations of eyes in Type 1 diabetes

Abstract

Straylight, lens yellowing and ocular aberrations were assessed in a group of people with type 1 diabetes and in an age matched control group. Most of the former had low levels of neuropathy. Relative to the control group, the type 1 diabetes group demonstrated greater straylight, greater lens yellowing, and differences in some higher-order aberration co-efficients without significant increase in root-mean-square higher-order aberrations. Differences between groups did not increase significantly with age. The results are similar to the findings for ocular biometry reported previously for this group of participants, and suggest that age-related changes in the optics of the eyes of people with well-controlled diabetes need not be accelerated.

Keywords: (330.4875) Optics of physiological systems; (330.7329) Visual optics, pathology.

Fig. 1

Relationships between age and straylight for people with and without diabetes. Fit for diabetes group: Y = +0.006(±0.002)Age + 0.70 (±0.08), R² 0.17, p < 0.01; fit for control group: Y = +0.007(±0.001)Age + 0.53 (± 0.06), R² 0.36, p < 0.01. Values in brackets are standard errors.

Fig. 2

Relationships between age and log of lens yellowing for people with and without diabetes. (a) Fit for diabetes group: Y = +0.019(±0.004)Age + 1.00(±0.15), R² 0.47, p < 0.001; fit for control group: Y = +0.018(±0.003)Age + 0.78(±0.12), R² 0.49, p < 0.001. Values in brackets are standard errors. (b) Comparison of log lens yellowing in the current study and previous studies. For clarity, linear fits only have been shown. Lutze & Bresnick’s group consisted of 31 DM1 and 10 controls [16]. Davies & Morland’s group consisted of 34 people with diabetes (10 DM1 and 24 DM2) and 34 controls [17]. Vertical displacement of data between studies should be disregarded.

Fig. 3

Relationships between age and total ocular aberration components for people with and without diabetes. (a) Horizontal coma linear fit, diabetes group: Y = +0.001(±0.001)Age − 0.05(±0.04), R² 0.01, p 0.48; control group: Y = −0.002(±0.001)Age + 0.10(±0.05), R² 0.06, p 0.09. (b) Vertical coma linear fit, diabetes group: Y = −0.003(±0.001)Age + 0.11(±0.04), R² 0.18, p < 0.01; control group: Y = −0.002(±0.001)Age + 0.12(±0.03), R² 0.22, p 0.001. (c) Spherical aberration linear fit, diabetes group: Y = +0.000(±0.001)Age + 0.03(±0.04), R² 0.00, p 0.84; control group: Y = +0.000(±0.001)Age + 0.04(±0.03), R² 0.01, p 0.64. (d) HORMS linear fit, diabetes group: Y = +0.001(±0.001)Age + 0.14(±0.05), R² 0.02, p 0.41; control group: HORMS linear fit Y = +0.000(±0.001)Age + 0.18(±0.04), R² 0.00, p 0.78. Values in brackets are standard errors.