Effects of corneal nerve density on the response to treatment in dry eye disease.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

To evaluate whether levels of corneal subbasal nerve fiber length (SNFL) in dry eye disease (DED) could prognosticate the level of improvement in signs and symptoms after treatment.

Design

Phase IV, double-masked, randomized clinical trial.

Participants

Sixty patients with meibomian gland dysfunction-associated DED and 27 age-matched controls.

Methods

Patients with DED were randomized to receive topical artificial tears, loteprednol etabonate 0.5%, or loteprednol etabonate 0.5%/tobramycin 0.3% twice daily for 4 weeks. At baseline, in vivo confocal microscopy of central cornea was performed in both eyes. Patients with DED were divided into 2 subgroups: those with low baseline SNFL and those with near-normal baseline SNFL for this purpose (the cutoff poin

SUBMITTER: Kheirkhah A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4372494 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature