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. 2022 Jul 11;36(1):117-121.
doi: 10.4103/sjopt.sjopt_37_21. eCollection 2022 Jan-Mar.

Dry eye disease and ocular surface characteristics in patients with keratoconus

Enver Mirza  1 , Refik Oltulu  1 , Pembe Oltulu  2 , Gunsu D Mirza  1 , Mehmet Okka  1
Affiliations

Dry eye disease and ocular surface characteristics in patients with keratoconus

Enver Mirza et al. Saudi J Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the ocular surface alterations in patients with mild or severe keratoconus (KC).

Methods: A total of 80 participants were included in the study. The corneal topography was performed on each participant using Pentacam and the grouping was done accordingly. The patients with Kmax ≥52.0 D (severe KC) were considered Group 1 (n = 28), the patients with Kmax ≥47.2 and <52.0 D (mild KC) were considered Group 2 (n = 30). Healthy control participants with Kmax <47.2 D were considered Group 3 (n = 22). Tear breakup time (TBUT), Schirmer-I test, ocular surface disease index (OSDI) questionnaire, and conjunctival impression cytology (CIC) were evaluated among the groups.

Results: The mean values of TBUT and Schirmer-I test were significantly lower (P = 0.012, P = 0.012) and the mean scores of OSDI and CIC were significantly higher (P = 0.006, P < 0.001) in Group 1 and Group 2 than in Group 3. The mean values of TBUT and Schirmer-I test were lower and the mean scores of OSDI and CIC were higher in Group 1 than in Group 2 but the differences were insignificant (P > 0.05 for all).

Conclusion: These results indicated that the tests associated with dry eye disease are correlated with KC. Tear film alterations and goblet cell loss are higher in severe KC.

Keywords: Conjunctival impression cytology; dry eye disease; goblet cell density; keratoconus; tear film.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) CIC Grade 0 (b) CIC Grade 1 (c) CIC Grade 2 (d) CIC Grade 3 (All the big pictures, H and E ×400; all the small pictures, H and E, ×100). CIC: Conjunctival impression cytology
Figure 2
Figure 2
H and E squamous cell morphologies according to the Nelson criteria (All the squamous cells in H and E stain of impression cytology have dens pink cytoplasm); (a) Grade 0; NCR 1:2 (b) Grade 1; NCR 1:3 (c) Grade 2; NCR 1:4 (d) Grade 3; Pyknotic nucleus in large cytoplasm (×1000)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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