2022 Annual Meeting and Alumni Reunion
Category : Clinical Research Candidate : Shudan Wang Poster #: C16
Neurotrophic Keratopathy-Associated Eye Pain and Quality-of-Life- Related Parameters in Patients with Ocular Graft-Versus-Host Disease
Shudan Wang , Rohan Bir Singh , Erdem Yuksel , Aytan Musayeva , Thomas H . Dohlman , Reza Dana
Purpose : Neurotrophic keratopathy ( NK ) is a degenerative disorder of the cornea characterized by decreased sensory innervation , epitheliopathy , and impaired epithelial healing . In this study , we performed an assessment of ocular pain and quality-of-life-related parameters in ocular graft-versus-host disease ( oGVHD ) patients with and without NK .
Methods : We included 213 oGVHD patients in this retrospective study , including 29 patients with NK assessed by Cochet-Bonnet esthesiometer . We evaluated their records for ocular pain assessment survey ( OPAS ) scores and clinical parameters including corneal sensation , corneal fluorescein staining ( CFS ) score , Schirmer test , tear break-up time ( TBUT ), and ocular surface disease index ( OSDI ) score .
Results : In the cohort , NK was diagnosed by significantly lower corneal sensation scores . We observed a significantly higher CFS score and shorter TBUT in patients with NK than patients without NK . The patients with NK reported a significantly higher ocular pain intensity than patients without NK ( average eye pain intensity in the past 24h : 1.1 ± 1.9 vs . 2.0 ± 2.8 ; p = 0.03 ). The patients with NK more commonly reported burning sensation ( 0.2 ± 0.3 vs . 0.3 ± 0.4 ; p = 0.021 ) and sensitivity to light ( 0.2 ± 0.3 vs . 0.3 ± 0.4 ; p = 0.049 ) compared to patients without NK . Ocular pain had negative correlation with TBUT ( r = -0.34 , p = 0.11 ) among NK patients .
Conclusions : The clinical parameters are worse in oGVHD patients with NK and they experience a higher intensity of ocular pain and have a worse quality of life , compared to oGVHD patients without NK .