Ocular Surface Disease in Patients under Topical Treatment for Glaucoma

Abstract

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE disease, conjunctivitis, and keratitis (3). Ocular surface disease is frequently observed in glaucoma patients and is thought to be the consequence of the chronic use of IOP-lowering eyedrops (4, 5). As a comorbidity of glaucoma, OSD has been held responsible for poor treatment adherence (6) and worsening of patient quality of life (6, 7). In treated glaucoma patients, abnormal tear film function has been detected using objective tests such as fluorescein corneal staining, tear film breakup time (TBUT), osmolarity, or meibomian gland score, although the severity of symptoms varies widely among studies (8-11). Both OSD and glaucoma are age-related diseases (7, 12), though individuals with glaucoma show a higher prevalence of OSD than do those without glaucoma (13). There is increasing evidence to suggest that the preservatives used in antiglaucoma medications may worsen the signs and symptoms of OSD. Benzalkonium chloride (BAK) is one of the first preservatives introduced and is currently the most widely used ophthalmic preservative. Several in vitro and animal studies have shown that solutions containing BAK cause corneal neurotoxicity, tear film disruption, and trabecular meshwork damage (14, 15). As a less harmful preservative,

Characterization of the ocular surface temperature dynamics in glaucoma subjects using long-wave infrared thermal imaging

“…As glaucoma is a progressive disease, long-term treatment is required for its control. Although there are a great variety of hypotensive eye drops in the market, frequent side effects affecting the ocular surface are reported, mostly as dry eye, occurring in up to 59% of subjects [8][9][10].…”

“…The tear film provides the cornea with nutrients, and protects and moisturizes the ocular surface. The systematic use of glaucoma eye drops may alter the quality and functionality of this ocular layer [8]. An unstable tear film can decrease the quality of vision, which in turn affects daily activities like reading or driving as well as producing symptoms of dryness and discomfort [10,12,13].…”

Ocular surface analysis and automatic non-invasive assessment of tear film breakup location, extension and progression in patients with glaucoma

“…It has been used to evaluate the ocular surface in different patient populations such as dry eye patients [13][14][15][16][17][18], Meibomian gland dysfunction [14,17,19], refractive surgery [20], and diabetes mellitus [21]. To our knowledge, only two articles [22,23] from the same study group used the device to evaluate the ocular surface in glaucoma patients and did not find differences in NITBUT values between groups. We did find differences between glaucoma patients and healthy subjects in our study, not just in NITBUT values, but also in location and temporal progression of tear film breakups.…”

Ocular surface analysis and automatic non-invasive assessment of tear film breakup location, extension and progression in patients with glaucoma

“…It has been used to evaluate the ocular surface in different patient populations such as dry eye patients [14][15][16][17][18][19], Meibomian gland dysfunction [15,18,20], refractive surgery [21], and diabetes mellitus [22]. To our knowledge, only two articles [23,24] from the same study group used the device to evaluate the ocular surface in glaucoma patients and did not find differences in NITBUT values between groups. We did find differences between glaucoma patients and healthy subjects in our study, not just in NITBUT values, but also in location and temporal progression of tear film breakups.…”