Changes in refraction in diabetes mellitus

TLDR: There is a tendency to hypermetropia with decreased sugar, with increased sugar to myopia, which is strongly borne out by the study of three cases which have recently come under my observation in St. George's Hospital.

Abstract: AMONG the rarer and more interesting of the ocular complications of diabetes mellitus are sudden changes in refraction. Both an in.crease and a decrease in the refractive power occur; myopia has long been recognised (occurring in 4 per cent. of cases, von Noorden '6'), hypermetropia is rarer. A considerable number of observers have reported cases of both conditions, and, on analysis, it would seem possible to co-ordinate their findings into a definite \"law.\"-That the refractive power of the eye tends to vary directly as the sugar content of the blood; that is, there is a tendency to hypermetropia with decreased sugar, with increased sugar to myopia. This conclusion is strongly borne out by the study of three cases which have recently come under my observation in St. George's Hospital. In the first, refraction varied with mathematical precision with the blood-sugar content; the second showed hypermetropia following a decrease of sugar; while the third developed myopia as a terminal complication of a fatal diabetes.