Corneal edema recovery dynamics in the rabbit. A useful model?

Open-eye and closed-eye recovery from contact lens-induced corneal edema was measured on the right eyes of 10 New Zealand White rabbits using ultrasound pachometry. Edema was produced by either 2 hours of eye closure (Patch Test) or 2 hours wearing of a thick hydrogel contact lens over the closed eye (Lens Test). The measured corneal edema recovery data were analyzed by both linear-regression analysis and nonlinear-regression analysis based on a previously published exponential open-eye edema recovery model. Linear-regression analysis revealed that the initial rabbit open-eye edema recovery rate of 36.3 +/- 11.9 (standard deviation) micron/hr was not significantly different (P greater than 0.25) from the initial young human open-eye edema recovery rate of 35.6 +/- 3.4 micron/hr. Similarly, the initial rabbit closed-eye edema recovery rate of 14.3 +/- 5.4 micron/hr was found to be not significantly different (P greater than 0.25) from the initial young human closed-eye edema recovery rate of 15.0 +/- 2.2 microns/hr. Corneal edema recovery indices derived using nonlinear-regression analysis also had a strong similarity between rabbit and human corneal edema recovery rates. For example, the calculated percent recovery per hour (PRPH) for rabbit open-eye corneal edema recovery of 41.4 +/- 11.3%/hr agreed well with the reported human open-eye PRPH of 34.2-58.9%/hr. The rabbit closed-eye PRPH of 25.6 +/- 10.7%/hr was also found to lie between the calculated human closed-eye PRPH values of 19.9-30.2%/hr.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)