The Role of Atopic Disease in the Progression of Keratoconus

• Autor(a) principal: Maria Leal Antão
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/128726
• topic: Medicina clínica; Clinical medicine

Purpose: To study the influence of atopic conditions in the progression of corneal ectasia in keratoconus patients. Methods: Retrospective study of 56 eyes of 56 patients with Keratoconus, aged from 14 to 30 years old. Ectasia progression was evaluated between two scans separated by 12±3 months, using the tomographic variables Kmax, Km, K2, PachyMin, D-index, PCR and Corneal Astigmatism. Data regarding atopy and eye rubbing habits were collected from patients' clinical records, accessed through the SClinico System. Results: The prevalence of atopy in this sample was 60.7% and the prevalence of eye rubbing habits was 76.8.6%. As for the prevalence of rhinitis, asthma and atopic dermatitis, it is 53.6%, 12.5% and 16.1%, respectively. A statistically significant association was found between atopy and eye rubbing (p=0.007), indicating that atopic patients have more tendency to rub their eyes. No significant difference was found in the variation of the tomographic indices Kmax, Km, K1, K2, PachyMin, D-index, PCR and Astig between the two scans, when comparing the atopic and non-atopic groups of patients (p=0.821, p=0.759, p=0.794, p=0.883, p=0.969, p=0.747, p=0.442 and p=0.720, respectively). There were no significant associations between ectasia progression and atopy, eye rubbing, rhinitis, asthma and atopic dermatitis (p=0.300, p=0.573, p=0.765, p=0.071 and p=1.000, respectively). Conclusion: Despite the lack of difference in ectasia progression found between KC patients with and without atopy, an effective control of atopic conditions should be done in order to reduce eye rubbing, a well-stablished risk factor for Keratoconus.