Introduction: Current studies suggest that tears and conjunctival secretions may be an important transmission route in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The study aims to evaluate the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus in tears and conjunctival secretion of patients with COVID-19. Methodology: A prospective interventional case series study was performed, and 32 patients with COVID-19 were selected at the Pamukkale University Hospital from 15 to 22 May 2020. The tear and conjunctival samples were collected by a conjunctival swab. Each specimen was sent to the laboratory for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses. To avoid cross-infection, gloves and personal protective equipment were changed after collecting each sample. Results: 32 patients (18 male, 14 female) with Covid-19 were included in this cross-sectional study. The average age of the patients was 52.81 ± 16.76 years. By the time of the first collection of conjunctival-tear samples, the mean time of the onset of complaints was 6.84 ± 6.81 (1-35) days. Tear-conjunctival samples from 5 patients (16%) without conjunctivitis yielded positive PCR results, 3 of whom had positive and 2 negative nasopharyngeal PCR results. Conclusions: Five of 32 patients (16 %) without conjunctivitis or any eye symptoms had viral RNA in their tear-conjunctival samples. The possibility of transmission via tears and conjunctival secretions should be recognized even in the absence of conjunctivitis or other ocular manifestations.

The presence of a family history of glaucoma is a known risk factor for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in middle-aged and older individuals. In this study, our aim was to demonstrate possible early glaucomatous alterations in young first- and second-degree relatives of POAG patients by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. A total of 104 participants (52 relatives of POAG patients and 52 healthy individuals) were recruited in this cross-sectional study. All the participants were between 17 years and 45 years of age. All eyes underwent testing with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, hemifield macular thickness, macular ganglion cell complex thickness, posterior pole asymmetry analysis, and retinal arteriolar caliber measurements were taken for comparison between the study and control groups. The mean peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was 104.9 ± 8.8 μm in the study group and 105.6 ± 7.4 μm in the control group (p = 0.68). Although whole macular thickness measurements were higher in the control group when compared with the study group (p = 0.008), the macular ganglion cell complex thickness was similar in both groups (p = 0.87). The posterior pole asymmetry analysis revealed no statistically significant difference between the groups in the aspect of consecutive black squares (p = 0.79). The mean retinal arteriolar caliber was 85.9 ± 4.8 μm in the study group and 86.0 ± 5.0 μm in the control group (p = 0.90). In conclusion, young relatives of POAG patients do not show characteristic glaucomatous damage when compared with the controls.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of online education on eye health in Covid-19 pandemic and to present a new scale on this subject. For this purpose, 402 students (257 females, 145 males) with a mean age of 20.26 from different faculties of Pamukkale university were asked about eye health by e-mail between 8-13 July 2020. Also, eye fatigue questionnaire was applied to evaluate eye fatigue. Corrected item-total correlations and Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient techniques were used for reliability analysis. In this study, online education eye health scale in Covid-19 pandemic was found to be positively correlated with eye fatigue questionnaire. According to the results of simple linear regression analysis conducted to determine the predictive value of the online education eye health scale in Covid-19 pandemic to eye fatigue, it was found that the online education eye health scale in covid-19 pandemic significantly predicted eye fatigue. Data analysis were conducted with SPSS 21.0 statistical package program in 0.01 significance level.

The VM has some influence on corneal morphology and anterior chamber parameters, so that it should be considered during anterior segment examinations and operations.