This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Ground-level ozone exposure increases dry eye discomfort
In patients with dry eye disease, there was an increase in ocular discomfort and a decrease in tear secretion following short-term exposure to increased ground-level ozone concentration, according to a Korean study.
Yewon Kim, MD, and colleagues investigated the changes in clinical features of patients with dry eye disease in relation to short-term outdoor ground-level ozone exposure.
“To the best of our knowledge, there have been no well-designed prospective clinical studies to investigate the changes in the symptoms and signs according to ozone exposure in patients with DED,” Kim and colleagues wrote.
The prospective observational study included 66 eyes of 33 patients with dry eye disease. Patients with short tear film breakup time of 5 seconds or less with no ocular surface staining were treated with 3% diquafosol; those with positive staining were treated with 0.05% cyclosporine. Patients underwent two ophthalmic examinations at 2-month intervals.
Mean daily ground-level ozone concentration derived from air pollution data obtained from the Korea Ministry of the Environment using each subject’s home address was calculated for the week preceding the patients’ clinic visits. Increased ozone concentration was significantly associated with increased Ocular Surface Disease Index scores (P = .0006) and decreased tear secretion (P = .0012) in univariate models, with changes due to short-term ozone exposure being more prominently influenced in the cyclosporine group. – by Earl Holland Jr.
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Read more about