The Relationship Between Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Conjunctival Impression Cytology

Abstract

Objective: This study was designed to determine whether obesity causes the development of metaplasia in conjunctival epithelial cells.Material and Method: A total of 61 volunteer participants who had no previous history of illness or drug use were involved in this study. Ofthose, 20 were obese, and 41 were of normal weight. We measured the glucose and insulin values of all volunteers. We also measured the BodyMass Index (BMI) and Homeostasis Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA IR). The impression cytology method was used to analyzethe conjunctival epithelium cells, and to classify them between Grades 0 to 3 according to the Nelson criteria.Results: There was a certain level of loss of goblet cells on the 90% level as well as squamous metaplasia (Grade 2-3) in 80% of the obeseparticipants and impression cytology was found to be normal in only two patients. The expected results were observed in 56.1% of the controlgroup where the squamous metaplasia rate was nearly 17% (p