The Association between Diabetes and Herpes Simplex Eye Disease

ABSTRACT Purpose: 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%) controls (p = 0.981). Using multinomial logistic regression analyses, the probability/risk of being in the severe ocular surface HSED group as opposed to the mild ocular surface HSED group were not statistically significantly different between DM patients and those without DM (p = 0.120; OR, 1.900; 95% CI, 0.846–4.266). Conclusions: There may not be a positive association between type 2 DM and HSED.