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Published on: August 2, 2024
Dry eye disease and ocular surface characteristics in patients with keratoconus
Enver Mirza1, Refik Oltulu1, Pembe Oltulu2
1Department of Ophthalmology, Meram Faculty of Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey.
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.
