Abstract
Purpose:
To assess a clinical difference in the management of dry eye between autologous serum (AS) and plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF).
Methods:
We made a comparison between the clinical efficacy of autologous PRGF and autologous serum in patients diagnosed with dry eye, who did not responded previously to other standard treatments, in terms of symptoms (OSDI questionnaire). An objective evaluation by slit lamp ( tear film rupture, tear meniscus height) and Schirmer Test was made. Following the recommendations of the Helsinki Declaration and approval by the Hospital de la Luz Ethical Committee, we obtained the informed consent of these patients before commencing the study
Results:
At the moment we have 7 patients treated with AS and artificial tears (Group A), 3 patients with PRGF and artificial tears (Group B), and 10 with artificial tears only (Group C). In Group A, after 1 month follow-up, we found an average decline of 1 level in dry eye severity, no changes in TFR and meniscus height, Schirmer test in males was 1 mm more in both eyes, in females 2.64 mm for right eye and 1.5 mm for left eye, in the OSDI score males had a reduction of 8.3 points and females of 13.53 points. In Group B (consisting in females only), we found a decline of 2 levels in the severity scale, a 2 seconds rise of TFR, no changes in meniscus height, a rise of 0.67 mm in the right eye Schirmer and 1 mm in the left one, and a diminution of 46.31 points in the OSDI score. In Group C we found an average decline of 1 and 0.5 level in dry eye severity for males and females respectively, a rise of 2.5 seconds and 0.5 seconds in the TFR, no changes in meniscus height, Schirmer test in males was 1.5 mm increased only in left eye, in females 2.5 mm for right eye and 2 mm for left eye, in the OSDI score males had a reduction of 19.5 points and females of 20.39 points.
Conclusions:
All groups had significant clinical improvement, even though we observed an inconsistency between the clinical data and the OSDI score. The group B improvement was remarkable, compared with other groups, but we need a larger sample size for a statistical analysis.
Keywords: 486 cornea: tears/tear film/dry eye