This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Conjunctival sensitivity tied to dry eye disease
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Conjunctival sensitivity is an important risk factor in the development of symptoms of dry eye disease, a study found.
Ping Situ and colleagues compared corneal and conjunctival sensitivity to cooling stimuli in 97 non-contact-lens-wearing patients. Their findings were presented here at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
The researchers studied subjects both with and without symptoms of ocular dryness. The subjects were grouped by age and gender. The researchers measured corneal and conjunctival sensitivity at room temperature with a pneumatic esthesiometer.
Results showed that “corneal and conjunctival sensitivity to cooling stimuli were higher in the subjects who have dry eye symptoms than those who are asymptomatic,” the study authors said. Additionally, they noted that “this corneal and conjunctival hypersensitivity may indicate the alteration of sensory processing in the symptomatic patients.”
They also noted that conjunctival sensitivity was higher than corneal sensitivity in the dry eye group, and conjunctival sensitivity was higher in women than men in the dry-eye group.