The Association between Diabetes and Herpes Simplex Eye Disease

ABSTRACTPurpose: To evaluate the association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and presence and severity of Herpes simplex eye disease (HSED).Methods: We conducted two sub-studies. We included the patients seen on the Cornea Service of the Wills Eye Hospital from January 2008 to August 2012. Study 1 included 541 patients with HSED and 3226 controls. Study 2 involved 40 diabetic and 120 non-diabetic ocular surface HSED patients. Severity of ocular surface HSED was graded as mild, moderate, or severe, based on best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). Patients were excluded if they had fewer than two office visits or had non-Herpes simplex-related vision-threatening conditions. Diabetes was graded as: diet group (DM controlled with diet), oral group (DM controlled with oral medications), and insulin group (DM control required insulin).Results: Five of 541 (0.93%) HSED patients had type 1 DM, similar to 19/3246 (0.59%) controls (p = 0.375); 48 of 541 (8.88%) HSED patients had type 2 DM, similar to 287/3246 (8.84%) c...