Corneal Opacity in The United States: An Epidemiological Study from the IRIS Registry

Abstract

Purpose : Data on the prevalence and incidence of corneal opacity (CO) are sparse in the United States. In this study, we performed a retrospective analysis of the electronic health record data to determine the epidemiology and associated demographic and clinical characteristics of CO using the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s IRIS® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight).

Methods : The IRIS registry contains data of 45,261,877 individual patients with recorded eye clinic visits from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2017. CO was identified by using International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes (ICD-9, and -10) of “371” (corneal scar) and “H17” (corneal opacity). The recorded demographic parameters included age and sex, and the clinical data included laterality, associated ICD codes, and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) before, during, and after onset of CO.

Results : A total of 3,357,219 patients were identified with CO in one or both eyes. Among those patients, 111,809 patients had a new diagnosis of CO in 2017. The mean age of the cohort was 64.2±17.2 years and 56% of patients were female (p<0.001). In those with CO, 90.1% had unilateral involvement and 9.9% had bilateral involvement (p<0.001). The prevalence of CO increased with age and was highest among those over 65 (p<0.001). The most common corneal diagnoses associated with CO were corneal dystrophies, keratoconjunctivitis, keratitis, corneal degenerations and corneal injuries. The mean BCVA during and after onset of CO was 20/80 (p<0.001), and 20/41 respectively (p<0.001), compared to 20/36 before onset.

Conclusions : Using the IRIS Registry, we identified 3,357,219 patients diagnosed with corneal opacity. CO is mostly unilateral and leads to a decrease in the visual acuity of those affected.

This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.