Oral mucosa transplantation may improve tear film osmolarity in dogs with keratoconjunctivitis sicca - a preliminary study

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of cyclosporine 1% alone or associated with oral mucosa transplantation (OMT) in dogs with dry keratoconjunctivitis (KCS). Schirmer Tear Test (STT-1) and Tear Film Osmolarity (TFO) were measured in both eyes of 30 adult dogs (before and 45 days after treatment. The animals were divided into three groups (10 dogs for group): control (normal dogs), group I (GI, treated with 1% cyclosporine alone), and group II (GII, treated with 1% cyclosporine and OMT). All STT-1 and TFO values were subjected to the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, and all were normally distributed. STT-1 and TFO values before and after treatment were subjected to the T-Student Test. The STT‐1 and TFO values of the right eye were subjected to Repeated Measures ANOVA followed by a Tukey Test for comparison between groups I and II. Means with a value of p≤0.05 were considered significant. There was a decreased osmolarity in both groups after treatment. Mean osmolarity in GII (322.60±16.56 mOsm/L) was significantly lower than GI (336.40±5.66 mOsm/L). The OMT associated with cyclosporine 1% improved the osmolarity of the tear film in dogs with KCS with a seeming synergism between the clinical and surgical treatments.

Clinical parameters obtained during tear film examination in domestic rabbits

“…At present, TFO measurement is considered to be an important parameter in the diagnosis of dry eye in clinical medicine [ 11 ]. In the past decade, several studies on osmolarity have been performed in different animal species, such as dogs [ 10 , 12 – 15 ], cats [ 16 ], horses [ 17 ] and rabbits [ 18 ]; despite this, it is still not widely adopted as a routine diagnostic test in veterinary medicine [ 12 ].…”