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[Adverse effects of beta-blocker eye drops on the ocular surface]
1Department of Ophthalmology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-cho, Hirokoji-agaru, Kawaramachi-dori, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-0841, Japan.
Purpose:
We investigated the adverse effects of beta-blocker eye drops on tears and ocular surface epithelium.
Methods:
We studied twenty-three eyes of twenty three glaucoma patients [10 males, 13 females: 53.8 +/- 12.2 (yrs; mean +/- standard deviation)] treated with beta-blocker eye drops for more than three months and thirty two control subjects (16 males, 16 females: 50.4 +/- 10.9). The parameters described below were compared between the groups: 1. the radius of tear meniscus curvature, 2. grades for tear lipid layer interference patterns, 3. non-invasive breakup time (N-BUT), 4. cotton thread value, 5. scores of fluorescein staining, 6. fluorescein breakup time (F-BUT), 7. scores of rose bengal staining, 8. and Schirmer I value.
Results:
The glaucoma group showed a significant decrease in the radius of tear meniscus curvature (p = 0.0007), a significantly lower distribution in the grades for tear lipid layer interference patterns (p = 0.0270), a significant difference in the scores of fluorescein staining (p < 0.0001), a significant shortening in F-BUT (p = 0.0050), a significantly higher distribution in the scores of rose Bengal staining (p = 0.0010), and a significantly smaller value in Schirmer I value (p = 0.0042). However, there was no significant difference in N-BUT and cotton thread value.
Conclusions:
These results clearly demonstrate that the ocular surface in glaucoma patients treated with beta-blocker eye drops show dry-eye-like changes in terms of tears and ocular surface epithelium.