Influence of Atopy on Choroidal thickness in Keratoconus Patients

• Autor(a) principal: Ana Francisca do Couto Aires
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/128914
• topic: Ciências médicas e da saúde; Medical and Health sciences

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine if increased choroidal thickeness is correlated with atopy in patients with keratoconus. Methods: A cross-sectional study including 80 patients with KC of which 51 atopic and 29 non-atopic, aged between 14 and 30 years old, were studied. Patients with KC followed in Corneal Department of Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, were identified and consecutively included between December 2017 and February 2018. A spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) using depth enhanced imaging was performed and choroidal thickness was measured and compared in the center of the fovea and at 500 µm intervals along a horizontal section. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS. Results: The statistical analysis showed that atopic-keratoconic patients seem to have a thicker choroid in every measured location. Mean subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) values obtained were 391.53 ± 108.08 and 351.17 ± 85.60 in atopic and non-atopic groups, respectively (P<0.088). In the multivariate analysis, adjusted to co-variates (age, sex and spherical equivalent) we found that having atopy makes the choroid thicker, on average 41.407 µm when compared to non-atopic, although without statistical significance (P = 0.084). We found a statistically thicker choroid 62.656 µm (P=0.035) only in patients with atopic dermatitis but not in patients with asthma or rhinoconjunctivitis. Conclusion: Atopic patients seem to have a thicker choroid compared with non-atopic patients, which could be associated with inflammatory choroidal mechanisms in patients with KC.