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Study finds systemic predictors for greater symptoms of dry eye
A study involving a tertiary dry eye clinic patient cohort found associations between systemic disorders and reported symptoms of dry eye vs. signs.
A total of 648 patients were selected from the Groningen Longitudinal Sicca Study (GLOSSY) cohort, a clinic-based group from the tertiary dry eye clinic at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. This is a national referral center offering a multidisciplinary approach to Sjögren’s syndrome. All patients filled in a 12-item questionnaire of symptoms and received complete objective assessment for dry eye disease.
Significant predictors of greater symptoms than signs were chronic pain syndromes, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pelvic pain and fibromyalgia. This finding, according to the authors, “adds to the growing evidence that part of the dry eye population may show signs of dysfunctional somatosensory pathways, indicating neuropathic pain.”
Depression was also associated with greater symptoms, but high concurrence with chronic pain syndrome may be a confounding factor.
Allergy and atopic disorders were also highly associated with greater symptoms than signs, likely due to sensitization of the ocular surface by recurrent inflammation.
In the group of patients with lesser symptoms than signs, Sjögren’s disease was the number one predictor, followed by graft-versus-host disease.
Overall, patients with greater symptoms than signs had a significantly lower self-perceived health.
“This underlines the importance and clinical value of discordance between symptoms and signs, because it is a serious indicator of poor health-related quality of life for patients, which has an impact on mental health, employment, support service needs and many other aspects of life,” the authors wrote. – by Michela Cimberle
Disclosure: Vehof reported no relevant disclosures. Please see the study for the other authors’ financial disclosures