Abstract
Purpose :
Yokoi et al. previously reported that fluorescein breakup (FBU) patterns can be categorized into 1 of 5 groups, and suggested that the 5 different FBU patterns reflect the different pathophysiologies of dry eye (AAO 2015). The purpose of this present study was to evaluate the FBU patterns of dry-eye patients with blepharospasm unresponsive to topical treatment.
Methods :
This study involved 14 dry-eye patients with blepharospasm unresponsive to treatment (3 males and 11 females, mean age: 63.1 years) who underwent botulinum toxin (BTX) injection between March 2013 and October 2015. FBU patterns were categorized into 1 of 5 patterns (spot, line, random, area, and dimple). The effect of BTX- injection was then evaluated retrospectively.
Results :
FBU patterns were categorized as dimple break: 7 patients (50%), spot break: 6 patients (42.9%), line break: 1 patient (7.1%). Of the 14 patients, 13 (92.8%) had short BUT type (spot or dimple breakup = decreased wettability) dry eye. BTX injection was effective in 11 patients (85.7%) [6 patients (42.9%) had significant improvement and 5 patients (35.7%) had mild improvement].
Conclusions :
The findings of this study suggest that dry-eye patients with blepharospasm unresponsive to treatment tend to have decreased corneal wettability. The decreased wettability of the ocular surface might be related to abnormal expression of membrane-associated mucins due to increase of the friction between the back side of the eyelid and ocular surface with excessive blinking.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.