Abstract
Purpose :
To examine the relationships between corneal sensitivity to cool stimuli and symptoms of ocular discomfort in contact lens (CL) wearers
Methods :
51 CL wearers and 15 non-CL wearing controls participated in the study. The CL wearers were subdivided into symptomatic (CL-S) and asymptomatic (CL-A) groups based on comfortable wearing time and Contact Lens Dry Eye Questionnaire-8 (CLDEQ-8) score at study entry. Corneal sensitivity was measured using a Belmonte esthesiometer on two separate days: (Day 1) without CL wear at <1, 3, 6 and 9 hours after awakening and (Day 2) with CLs prior to insertion and after 8-hour of wear (order of days randomly assigned). Subjects completed the Current Symptoms Questionnaire (CSQ) at each measurement time point.
Results :
On both days, the CL-S group showed significantly lower corneal thresholds and higher CSQ scores compared to the CL-A and control groups (repeated measures ANOVA p≤0.006). These differences were time dependent (p<0.001) with significantly decreased thresholds and increased CSQ scores at the end of day. There were significant negative correlations between end of day thresholds and end of day CSQ scores (r=-0.44 and -0.48 respectively, p≤0.001) and study entry CLDEQ-8 scores (r=-0.47 and -0.38, respectively, p≤0.007).
Conclusions :
This study demonstrated that sensitivity to corneal cool stimuli increased in symptomatic CL wearers at the end of day. These results suggest that increased corneal sensory responses may contribute to the increasing ocular irritation among symptomatic CL wearers over the course of the day.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.