Subclinical increases in epithelial permeability can be caused by contact lens CW, despite the elimination of hypoxia. GP lenses permit recovery of the epithelium more quickly than do SiH lenses. Asians appear to be more susceptible to contact lens-induced epithelial changes than do non-Asians.
a b s t r a c tPurpose: To ascertain whether a difference in the permeability of the corneal epithelium to fluorescein (P dc ) exists between Asians and non-Asians. Methods: From a multi-study database we extracted 632 records of baseline, open-eye P dc measurements taken on both eyes of 176 subjects. Subjects were awake for a minimum of 4 h before measurement, and were free of ocular disease and central corneal staining. P dc was transformed by natural logarithm to better approximate normality for statistical tests. Results: The mean ln(P dc ) in the Asian group was significantly greater than in the non-Asian group [−2.34 ln(nm/s) vs. −2.58 ln(nm/s); p < 0.001]. Conclusions: Compared with non-Asians, Asians exhibited a less negative ln(P dc ), which translates to a higher P dc and a more permeable corneal epithelium. We speculate that this may be related to anatomic differences responsible for greater eyelid tension in Asians.
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