Analysis of tear meniscus and intervention with artificial tears in lupus nephritis patients with xerophthalmia / 医学研究生学报

ABSTRACT

Objective Xerophthalmia is a common disease of the ocular surface .Lupus nephritis ( LN) may induce changes in the ocular surface , which has aroused increasing attention in ophthalmology .This study was to observe the morphological changes of the tear meniscus in LN patients with xerophthalmia after treated with artificial tears . Methods This clinical trial included 60 LN patients with xerophthalmia (120 eyes) and another 60 without.The xerophthalmia group received artificial tear eye-drops for 1 month. The tear meniscus height (TMH), tear meniscus depth (TMD), and tear meniscus area (TMA) were measured by anterior segment optical coherence tomography ( AS-OCT) before and after intervention . Results There were significant differences between the xe-rophthalmia and control groups in the baseline TMH ([0.159 ±0.051] vs [0.269 ±0.053] mm, P<0.01), TMD ([0.154 ± 0.012] vs [0.198 ±0.007] mm, P<0.01), and TMA ([0.021 ±0.069] vs [0.052 ±0.021] mm2, P<0.01).After 1 month of intervention with artificial tears, the xerophthalmia patients showed dramatically increased TMH ([0.179 ±0.014] vs [0.159 ± 0.051] mm, P<0.01), TMD ([0.163 ±0.015] vs [0.154 ±0.012] mm, P<0.01), and TMA ([0.040 ±0.017] vs [0.021 ± 0.069] mm2, P<0.01). Conclusion AS-OCT, with its advantages of clearly and objectively imaging and measuring the cross section of the tear meniscus , can be applied to the diagnosis and assessment of xerophthalmia in LN patients , and artificial tear eye-drops can effectively relieve their xerophthalmia symptoms .