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Study halted after cornea with iridocorneal epithelial syndrome fails to recover thickness
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Researchers in Amsterdam halted a study when an eye with iridocorneal epithelial syndrome failed to recover its normal corneal thickness after a stress test, according to a study published in the October 2006 issue of Optometry and Vision Science.
Monica Th. P. Odenthal, MD, of Academic Medical Center, and colleagues were investigating corneal hydration in eyes with unilateral iridocorneal epithelial (ICE) syndrome. They sought to learn how afflicted corneas could maintain their normal thickness for years before decompensation. Dr. Odenthal and colleagues subjected the afflicted eyes and healthy contralateral eyes to corneal stress tests, measuring the rate of recovery to normal thickness after swelling induced by a soft contact lens.
Mean corneal thickness was not significantly different at baseline: 535 µm for afflicted eyes and 526 µm for the controls. After the stress tests, the researchers observed swelling of 33 µm in the afflicted eyes and 67 µm in the healthy eyes.
"The ICE cornea can maintain its normal thickness despite severe morphological abnormalities of the endothelium," the authors said.
Afflicted eyes were slower to recover, however. By midnight, one of four afflicted eyes had not recovered its full thickness, the authors said.
"Because we found that recovery of corneal thickness can be extremely slow, it cannot be guaranteed that such corneal 'stress tests' are completely safe for subjects with the ICE syndrome, and we therefore feel that they should no longer be performed in these subjects," the authors said.