Abstract
Purpose: :
To report the clinical characteristics of Terrien’s marginal degeneration (TMD) in China.
Methods: :
The medical records of 103 eyes of 72 patients with TMD were retrieved and reviewed in this retrospective observational case study. The severity of disease was graded as 4 stages: infiltration, thinning, descemetocele, and perforation. Patients were divided into inflammatory and non-inflammatory types based on whether the patient had recurrent episode of irritation symptoms and ocular surface inflammation.
Results: :
Among 72 patients, there were 33 males and 39 females. At the time of diagnosed as TMD, the average age of the patients was 32.4±17.1 years old. There were 41 cases (57%) with unilateral involvement and 31 cases (43%) with bilateral involvement. Patients with unilateral disease were younger than patients with bilateral disease (27.7 y vs. 38.7 y; P=0.01). The infiltration stage, thinning stage, descemetocele stage, and perforation stage accounted for 5%, 50%, 29%, and 16%, respectively. The superior, inferior, nasal, or temporal quadrants of cornea was involved in 84%, 57%, 52%, and 55% of eyes with TMD, respectively. Among 17 eyes with perforation, the perforation position were located in the superior (14/17, 82%) or inferior quadrants (3/17, 18%) of the cornea. There were 19 cases (26%) of inflammatory type. Among those 19 cases, females accounted for 63.2%. The average age of inflammatory TMD was lower than that of non-inflammatory TMD (22 vs. 34.5; P <0.001), and they were more prone to be bilaterally involved (63.2% vs. 35.9%; P=0.04). However, the perforation rates of these two types were similar (16.1% vs. 16.7%, P=0.35).
Conclusions: :
This study provides the clinical features of TMD in China. The perforation rate is 16%. The superior cornea is the most common position that perforation occurs. Inflammatory TMD accounts for 1/4 of total cases and is more commonly seen in young female adults and has more bilateral incidences.
Keywords: cornea: clinical science • degenerations/dystrophies • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence