Abstract
Purpose :
A relationship between ocular sarcoidosis (OS) and dry eye (DE), as well as the associations of OS with Sjögren’s syndrome and lymphocyte infiltration within the lacrimal grand in OS, has previously been reported. The purpose of this present study was to investigate the tear function in OS in order to elucidate the possible association between OS and DE.
Methods :
This study involved 15 eyes of 15 female OS patients [mean age: 70.3±9.5 (SD) years], 9 eyes of 9 female Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) patients (mean age: 54.3±19.0 years), and 15 eyes of 15 female normal subjects (mean age: 57.5±7.9 years) as controls. In all subjects, only the right eye was analyzed, and the following assessments were performed: fluorescein breakup time (FBUT, seconds; measurements were performed 3 times, and then averaged), tear meniscus height (TMH, mm; after FBUT measurements, photographs were taken at the central lower TM and the measurements were done using a micro ruler), and the Schirmer 1 test (ST1, mm; 5 minutes).
Results :
The mean FBUT, TMH, and ST1 findings of the OS patients, VKH patients, and normal subjects were 5.2±2.7, 0.29±0.12, and 12.7±11.7, 6.7±2.6, 0.24±0.08, and 25.4±11.7, and 6.4±2.9, 0.24±0.08, and 25.7±10.4, respectively. The ST1 values in the OS patients were significantly lower than those in the VKH patients (p=0.029) and normal subjects (p=0.008), yet no significant differences in FBUT or TMH were observed between the three groups.
Conclusions :
In this study, the ST1 findings, yet not the TMH and BUT findings, revealed that the neural reflex arc and lacrimal gland system, which attenuate the vicious cycle between tear film and ocular surface epithelium in DE, are significantly impaired in OS. Thus, OS is possibly associated with DE via impairment of the neural reflex arc and lacrimal gland system.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.