Resumo

ORTS VILA, P; DEVESA TORREGROSA, P  e  BELMONTE MARTINEZ, J. Diabetic cataract: A rare finding which lead us to the diagnosis of this illness. Arch Soc Esp Oftalmol [online]. 2003, vol.78, n.7, pp.389-391. ISSN 0365-6691.

Case report: A 13-year-old female presented as an emergency, complaining of loss of vision during the last three months. On examination she had bilateral posterior subcapsular cataracts with snowflake opacities and a blood glucose of 731 mg/dl with ketoacidosis. Discussion: True diabetic cataracts should be differentiated from other lens opacities in diabetics. The latter, identical to senile cataracts, are very common but appear earlier in diabetic patients and are not considered true diabetic cataracts (which are rare). Although true diabetic cataracts are infrequent, the appearance of lens opacities in young patients should alert the ophthalmologist to the existence of diabetes mellitus.

Palavras-chave : Diabetic cataract; juvenile diabetes.