AIM: To compare the changes of wavefront aberrations in patients with diabetic retinopathy(DR)and with different degrees of dry eye and to explore the reasons of visual quality decline in them.

METHODS: We randomly selected 40 eyes in our hospital for treatment with DR and varying degrees of dry eye, and 40 eyes of normal control group. Topcon KR-1W visual quality analyzer was used to record the mean square the total high order corneal aberration, spherical aberration, comatic aberration and trefoil aberration of cornea with pupil diameters of 4mm and 6mm. Analysis of variance were used to compare the wavefront aberrations and the aberration values in the control group and in patients with diabetic retinopathy and with different degrees of dry eye.

RESULTS: For 4mm and 6mm pupil diameters, nondiabetic retinopathy(NDR)with dry eye group, the nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy(NPDR)with dry eye group and proliferative diabetic retinopathy(PDR)dry eye group had significantly increased tHOA, coma and trefoil compared with the contrast group(P<0.01), and PDR dry eye group were significantly higher than NDR with dry eye group and NPDR with dry eye group in tHOA, spherical aberration(SA), coma and trefoil(P<0.01).

CONCLUSION: Dry eye of diabetic retinopathy with different degrees is closely related to the increase of wavefront aberration. Increased wavefront aberration may be one of the reasons to reduced visual quality in patients with diabetic retinopathy and with dry eye, and provide the basis for the decline of visual function of diabetic patients with dry eye.