Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To evaluate refractive changes in patients with autoimmune nodular scleritis. Methods: Patients with active nodular scleritis were included. We evaluated best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure (IOP), refractive spherical and cylindrical error, scleral rigidity (based in Friedenwald nomogram for rigidity coefficient of sclera) and corneal topography were performed. The patients were evaluated at diagnosis and every month for at least one year. Results: Two patients were included. One of them had Wegener’s granolomatosis and the other had positive titles for HLA–B27. No significative differences were found in BCVA during acute inflammation phase and the inactive phase in our patients. Patient # 1: Inicial BCVA 20/30, final BCVA 20/25. Patient # 2: BCVA 20/25 and 20/20, respectively. No differences of IOP were observed during the follow–up. The initial rigidy coefficient (RC) of the first patient was 0.0182 and the final was 0.0137. The RC of the second patient were 0.104 during all the follow–up. No statistical differences were found in the spherical error of the patients. Changes in power and axis of cylindrical error were found during the acute phase that changed during the healing phase. These findings were confirmed with corneal topography. Conclusions: The inflammation of sclera seems to modified the scleral–limbic structure and may produce changes in cylindric power and axis in patients with autoimmune scleritis.
Keywords: sclera • inflammation • refractive error development