Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of superior limbal keratoconjunctivits (SLK) in patients with Graves’ disease.
Methods :
Thirty-five patients diagnosed as having SLK from a cohort of 459 patients with Graves’ disease were retrospectively evaluated. SLK was defined as a superior ocular surface fluorescein staining associated with superior conjunctival laxity and inflammation of the superior tarsal and bulbar conjunctiva. Demographic data and clinical features were evaluated and all patients had a complete evaluation of the ocular surface. Graves’ orbitopathy was diagnosed on the basis of the criteria of the European Group On Graves’ orbitopathy (EUGOGO) and the disease activity was quantified according to the Clinical Activity Score (CAS) and Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaires.
Results :
Within the 35 patients with SLK, 75.8% were female. Most of the patients were Caucasian (48.5%) followed by African (27,3%) and Asian (18,2%). Mean age was 45.48 ± 13.2 years. Considering smoking habit, 42.4% of patients never smoked while 39.4% were current smokers. Diabetes was found in 3.2% of patients. Bilateral SLK was observed in 54.8% of cases. Although there were good correlations between CAS score and antibodies against TSH receptor (TRAK) (p=0.03) and OSDI (p<0.05), there was no significant correlation between CAS score and the presence of SLK .
Conclusions :
SLK is not unusual in patient with Graves’ disease however it is not related to its severity. Careful ocular surface evaluation has to be performed in Graves’ orbitopathy to diagnose SLK.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.