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Advanced age considered significant risk factor for persistent epithelial defect
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SEATTLE — Advanced age is a significant risk factor for persistent epithelial defect, which is further increased by the pre-existing conditions herpes simplex virus keratitis and diabetes, according to a poster presentation here.
“Age is a significant risk factor for persistent epithelial defect,” Daisuke Shimizu, MD, told Ocular Surgery News in an interview at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting. The older the patient, the more care we have to take.”
The consecutive case series included 280 eyes of 280 patients with infectious or noninfectious keratitis. Researchers retrospectively analyzed patients who were referred to the Tottori University Hospital in Japan for treatment in a 5-year time period.
Persistent epithelial defect (PED) was defined as irregular or round corneal epithelium defect with one or more raised edges and poor healing response to conventional treatments, according to the poster.
Mean age of all patients was 59 years while mean age of PED patients was 70 years.
PED developed in 12 eyes of 36 patients with diabetes (P < .05) and in 10 eyes of 28 herpetic keratitis patients (P < .05).
“When the pathogenic DNA amount combined with the clinical characteristics were assessed using principal component analysis, age and diabetes positively contributed to the PED-related primary component, and the herpes simplex virus DNA amount was associated with the secondary component,” Shimizu said. – by Nhu Te
Reference:
Shimizu D. Advanced age is the most significant risk factor of persistent epithelial defect after treatment of keratitis. Presented at: ARVO; May 1-5, 2016; Seattle, Washington.
Disclosure: Shimizu reports no relevant financial disclosures.