Decreaed Denity of Corneal Baal Epithelium and ubbaal Corneal Nerve Bundle Change in Patient with Diabetic Retinopathy

Purpoe To define alteration in the denity of corneal baal epithelium in relation to diabetic retinopathic everity and the alteration of corneal innervation uing confocal microcopy. Deign Propective cae-control tudy. Method Forty-two type II diabetic patient tratified into nondiabetic (NDR), nonproliferative diabetic (NPDR), and proliferative diabetic (PDR) retinopathy and 14 age-matched healthy control ubject were tudied. Epithelial and tromal cell denitie and ubbaal nerve were invetigated by confocal microcopy. Reult Corneal baal epithelial cell denity (P = .0001), nerve fiber denity (NFD) (P < .0001), nerve branch denity (NBD) (P = .0003), and tortuoity coefficient (Tc) (P < .0001) were ignificantly different among the four group. Baal epithelial denity wa ignificantly correlated with NFD (r = 0.43, P = .0009), NBD (r = 0.36, P = .007), and TC (r = −0.58, P < .0001). Concluion Patient with diabete how alteration in corneal innervation and baal epithelial cell denity in different retinopathic tage. We demontrate that reduced denity in baal epithelial cell i correlated with change in innervation.