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Study: Corneal epithelium thinner in dry eye patients
Epithelial thickness profiles can aid in the customization of treatment for dry eye patients, according to a study recently published in Optometry & Vision Science.
Cui and colleagues showed with Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) that patients with dry eye experienced corneal epithelium thinning in specific regions.
Researchers conducted a cross-sectional, observational study that included 100 eyes of 100 dry eye patients and 35 eyes of 35 healthy participants.
All participants took the ocular surface disease index questionnaire and underwent an exam that included measuring best-corrected visual acuity, OCT scanning, corneal fluorescein staining, tear breakup time (TBUT), Schirmer’s 1 test without anesthetic (S1t) and meibomian morphology, as detailed in the study.
Researchers averaged epithelium measurements for each eye, including central, inferior, superior, minimum and maximum. They also calculated the correlations of epithelial thickness with various symptoms of dry eye.
"Our data revealed that the average thickness of superior corneal epithelium in dry eyes, measured by Fourier-domain OCT, was significantly thinner than that in normal eyes," the authors stated. "Notably, the thinner tendency was larger in the more severe dry eyes. The average central epithelial thickness had no correlation with TBUT, S1t or the severity of meibomian gland morphology. The connection between thinned superior corneal epithelium and decreased S1t was interesting, although it was not strong enough to exclude other factors. It provides an impetus for future studies to confirm these results and investigate the diagnostic effect of average superior corneal epithelial thickness.
"We propose that the thickness of the superior corneal epithelium is the primary concern of dry eye damage," they concluded. "Knowledge of the epithelial thickness profile in dry eye patients should help in customizing the design of contact lenses for oxygen permeation and in indicating a proper incision direction for refractive surgery in dry eye patients."
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.