Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Apr 6, 2022; 10(10): 3014-3026
Published online Apr 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i10.3014
Changes in corneal nerve morphology and function in patients with dry eyes having type 2 diabetes
Wei Fang, Zhong-Xi Lin, Hui-Qing Yang, Lei Zhao, Da-Chuan Liu, Zhi-Qiang Pan
Wei Fang, Hui-Qing Yang, Da-Chuan Liu, Department of Ophthalmology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
Wei Fang, Zhi-Qiang Pan, Department of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100005, Beijing, China
Zhong-Xi Lin, Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
Lei Zhao, Department of Endocrinology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
Author contributions: Pan ZQ was responsible for the overall design, quality control, and article revision; Fang W was responsible for collecting cases, coordinating the completion of the specific content of the experiment, statistical analysis, and writing the manuscript; Lin ZX was responsible for the blink reflex inspection; Yang HQ was in charge of tears and confocal microscopy. Lei Zhao was in charge of collecting cases; Liu DC was responsible for collecting cases, statistical analysis, and quality control.
Institutional review board statement: This study involving human participants was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The current study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University (No. [2020]061). A signed informed consent form was collected from all included patients.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed consent prior to sample collection according to the institutional guidelines and gave permissions to the use of their clinical data and accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interest.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at panyj0526@ccmu.edu.cn.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Qiang Pan, PhD, Department of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 1 Dongjiaomin Lane, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100005, China. panyj0526@ccmu.edu.cn
Received: September 13, 2021
Peer-review started: September 13, 2021
First decision: November 22, 2021
Revised: December 24, 2021
Accepted: March 15, 2022
Article in press: March 15, 2022
Published online: April 6, 2022
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study aimed to understand more about patients with dry eyes by exploring the corneal nerve morphology and function. A total of 131 patients were enrolled and divided into four groups depending on their types accordingly. Then, several tests were employed, including tear film break-up time, Schirmer I, in vivo confocal microscopy, and blink reflex tests. The tests results revealed that the nerve fiber length in three of four groups was reduced, R1 Latency of blink reflexes increased only in one group. Besides, the nerve branch density and R1 Latency differed between the two groups.