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Contact lenses may induce increase in lid wiper epitheliopathy
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SAN ANTONIO – Researchers found that interaction between contact lenses and the lid wiper region increased staining and that the changes in upper eyelid wiper epitheliopathy width may play more of a role in grade changes than height, according to Eric Ritchey, OD, PhD, FAAO, during a presentation here at the American Academy of Optometry annual meeting.
In this study, Ritchey and fellow researchers used lid wiper epitheliopathy as a sign of potential success for fitting contact lens patients. They investigated whether change in lid wiper epitheliopathy (LWE) grade may be due to frictional forces related to blinks.
They observed 29 subjects, including soft contact lens wearers (SCL) and non-contact lens wearers (NCL), over a 9-hour day for LWE height (H domain) or LWE width (W domain).
Non-contact lens wearers showed no changes throughout the day, he said.
“Soft contact lens wearers showed change in the height domain during the day for the upper lid; the width increased even more,” he said.
The fact that non-contact lens wearers showed no changes in height or width, “isn’t surprising,” Ritchey said. ”In SCL wearers, we see a change in the upper lid; it’s not driven by a single domain but is a combination of both domains, but width may play more of a role in LWE grade changes than height.
“We have to be better at our staining and we need better methodology,” he continued. “We did this in a semi-automated method. We found that even with trained masked examiners, if you looked at overall domains, we weren’t fantastic. If we are going to do this clinically, we need to be spot-on.”
Ritchey added: “That’s one thing we’re going to continue to work on, creating a better overall new methodology for lid wiper staining.” – by Abigail Sutton
Reference:
Ritchey E, et al. Variation in lid wiper epitheliopathy (LWE) height and width scores during the course of a day in contact lens and non-contact lens wearers. Presented at: American Academy of Optometry annual meeting; San Antonio; November 7 – 10, 2018.
Disclosure: Ritchey is an investigator for Johnson & Johnson Vision, Alcon and Sight Glass Vision. The study was funded by Alcon.