Corneal Epithelium Asymmetry in Children With Atopy: The Effect of Hand Dominance

To evaluate the effect of eye rubbing on the epithelial thickness profile in tomographically normal corneas by AS-OCT and to compare right and left eyes in right-handed children.

Thirty right-handed boys (mean age 11.2 years) with ocular allergy and history of eye rubbing were evaluated using Scheimpflug (Pentacam HR, Oculus Wetzlar, Germany) and anterior segment optical coherence tomography. Epithelial thickness (ET) and full corneal thickness (CT) parameters were compared between right and left eyes with a non-parametric Mann-Whitney test. A p-value lower than 0.05 was considered for statistical significance.

No eyes had topometric nor tomographic criteria for keratoconus. The min-max ET was lower in right eyes (-2.8 µm vs -3.5; p = 0.02). The difference between inferior and superior (I-S) octants was lower in right eyes (1.1 µm vs 1.9 µm; p = 0.03) as a result of inferotemporal thinning. The highest ET difference was registered between nasal and temporal octants and was more pronounced in the right eyes (2 µm vs 3.1 µm; p < 0.001).

AS-OCT analyses reveal different epithelial thickness patterns between the eyes in young atopic patients, likely eye rubbers. Inferior and temporal epithelial thickness seem to be more affected by thinning in the eye on the side of the dominant hand.