The eye and the skin in endocrine metabolic diseases

Abstract

The eye and skin may offer critical clues to the diagnosis of a varied spectrum of metabolic diseases from endocrine origin and their different stages of severity, such as diabetes mellitus and Graves disease. On the other hand, such entities may compromise the eye and visual function severely, and awareness of these possible associations is an important step in their diagnosis and management. A large number of less common endocrine diseases may also have significant ocular/visual or skin involvement. Often the etiologic relationship between the endocrine metabolic disease and the ocular compromise is unknown, but diverse pathogenetic mechanisms may act through a common pathologic pathway producing ocular damage, as occur in diabetic retinopathy. This review emphasizes the ocular and skin manifestations of different metabolic diseases of endocrine origin.