RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Corneal ulcer as the presenting feature of type 2 diabetes mellitus
JF BMJ Case Reports
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP bcr-2018-225557
DO 10.1136/bcr-2018-225557
VO 2018
A1 Muhammad Kutubi
A1 Alaric Smith
YR 2018
UL http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2018/bcr-2018-225557.abstract
AB A 60-year-old woman, with no significant medical or ophthalmic history, presented with a unilateral large corneal ulcer and hypopyon. Despite a severely injected conjunctiva and large corneal epithelial defect, the patient denied any discomfort in the eye. The ulcer was extremely slow to heal requiring prolonged treatment with topical and systemic broad-spectrum antibiotics. Due to the corneal opacification, fundal examination was not possible. Subsequent examination of the fellow eye revealed an appearance consistent with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. She was given treatment with panretinal laser photocoagulation. There was no history of diabetes and the patient denied experiencing any of the classical symptoms of hyperglycaemia. With blood tests revealing a raised plasma glucose and Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), a new diagnosis of diabetes mellitus was made. With the commencement of treatment for diabetes, there were signs of improvement in the corneal appearance.