Central Corneal Thickness in Patients with Dry Eye Disease

Abstract

Background: Dry eye or Keratoconjunctivitis sicca is mainly due to decreased tears which causes eye visual disturbance and discomfort. Dry eye affects corneal thickness. Aims and Objectives: Aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of dry eye disease on CCT with age and gender match controls. Materials and Methods: Two Hundred and twenty  subjects , 110 Patients are cases and 110 are controls. Subjects are from the Department of Ophthalmology  Narayana Medical college and Hospital Out patient Department are included in the the study. Dry eye disease diagnosed with questionnaire , Tear film Break up test , Schirmer’s test and slit lap examination . CCT is measures with Optical Pachymetry. T test was used to determine the significane of difference between two means. Results: In our study, there were 140 female patients and 80 male patients. The CCT among cases was very low (534.19 ?m±30.05) compared to controls (562.7 ?m±45.56) and this difference was statistically significant (P<0.05. The difference in CCT among males between the two groups was statistically significant and it was highly significant among females. Conclusion: There is a significant decrease in CCT due to Dry eye Disease. Pachymetry for CCT estimation shall be included in the routine management of dry eye patients so that corneal thinning could be easy to identify earlier and treated earlier