Assessing the Risk Factors For Diagnosed Symptomatic Dry Eye Using a Smartphone App: Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Dry eye (DE) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the ocular surface of the eye that affects millions of people throughout the world. Smartphone use as an effective health care tool has grown exponentially. The "Dry eye or not?" app was created to evaluate the prevalence of symptomatic DE, screen for its occurrence, and provide feedback to users with symptomatic DE throughout Thailand. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare the prevalence of symptomatic dry eye (DE), blink rate, maximum blink interval (MBI), and best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) between people with and without symptomatic DE and to identify risk factors for symptomatic DE in Thailand. METHODS: This cross-sectional study sourced data from the "Dry eye or not?" smartphone app between November 2019 and July 2020. This app collected demographic data, Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score, blink rate, MBI, BSCVA, and visual display terminal (VDT) use data. The criterion for symptomatic DE was OSDI score ≥13. RESULTS: The prevalence of symptomatic DE among individuals using this smartphone app in Thailand was 85.8% (8131/9482), with the Northeastern region of Thailand having the highest prevalence, followed by the Northern region. Worse BSCVA (median 0.20, IQR 0.40; P=.02), increased blink rate (median 18, IQR 16; P<.001), reduced MBI (median 8.90, IQR 10.80; P<.001), female sex (adjusted OR 1.83; 95% CI 1.59-2.09; P<.001), more than 6 hours of VDT use (adjusted OR 1.59; 95% CI 1.15-2.19; P=.004), and lower than bachelor's degree (adjusted OR 1.30; 95% CI 1.03-1.64; P=.02) were significantly associated with symptomatic DE. An age over 50 years (adjusted OR 0.77; 95% CI 0.60-0.99) was significantly less associated with symptomatic DE (P=.04). CONCLUSIONS: This smartphone DE app showed that the prevalence of symptomatic DE in Thailand was 85.8%. Signs and risk factors could be also evaluated with this smartphone DE app. Screening for DE by this app may allow for the development of strategic plans for health care systems in Thailand.

Prevalence of Preoperative Corneal Astigmatism in Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery at Mettapracharak Hospital, Thailand.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and analyze the demography and distribution of preoperative corneal astigmatism in patients undergoing cataract surgery at Mettapracharak Hospital. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The medical records of consecutive patients who had cataract surgery between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011 at Mettapracharak Hospital were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Patient demographic and keratometric data were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: The present study evaluated the keratometric data in 2,688 eyes of 2,671 patients who had cataract surgery with the mean age of 66.23±10.79 years. The mean corneal astigmatism was 1.09 D (range 0.00-8.50 D). Corneal astigmatism was higher than 1.00 D in 36.6%, between 0.51 D and 1.00 D in 37.9% and 0.50 D or less in 25.5% of eyes. The mean steep keratometry and flat keratometry values were 44.89±1.52 D and 43.81±1.57 D respectively. The magnitude of corneal astigmatism was positively correlated with age (p<0. 001) and there was a tendency for corneal astigmatism to increase with age above 50 years. Female had significantly steeper corneas than male. Corneal astigmatism was mainly against-the-rule (the steepest meridian at 180±30 degrees). The type of corneal astigmatism was strongly correlated with age. Against-the-rule astigmatism increased with older age. While aging decreased with-the-rule astigmatism. CONCLUSION: The present report showed the pattern of corneal astigmatism before cataract surgery in Thai governmental hospital, approximately one third of cataract patients had more than 1.00 D of astigmatism. This finding provide the important normative reference and help ophthalmologists to plan and manage the cost-effective correction of preexisting corneal astigmatism in cataract patients to achieve the best visual outcome.

Efficacy of amniotic membrane patching for acute chemical and thermal ocular burns.

OBJECTIVE: To study the efficacy of amniotic membrane patching (AMP) for acute chemical and thermal ocular burns and compare the results with a control group. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Fifteen patients (21 eyes) with acute ocular burn severity grading of II to IV were retrospectively reviewed. Thirteen eyes were treated with preserved AMP while eight eyes were treated with conventional treatment. Outcomes and complications were evaluated and compared between eyes in the AMP group and the control group with the same severity of burn. RESULTS: In the AMP group, the mean age was 36.9 +/- 11.7 years (range, 20-58). The mean follow-up time was 8.0 +/- 6.8 months (range, 1-20). Complete epithelialization was achieved in 69.2% (9/13 eyes) in total, 100% (5/5 eyes), 100% (3/3 eyes) and 20% (1/5 eyes) in grade II, III and IV respectively. Mean epithelial healing time in the AMP group was 10.4 +/- 5.8 days (range, 4-20). Comparison of grade 2 and 3 burns showed that the AMP group in which patching was performed within 5 days resulted in faster epithelial healing, less corneal haze and limbal deficiency than in the group in which patching was performed after 5 days, and the control group (mean epithelial defect 7.0 +/- 2.0, 19.5 +/- 0.7, 9.9 +/- 10.8 days respectively). CONCLUSION: Adjunctive treatment of ocular burns with AMP promoted rapid epithelial healing and reduced corneal complication. Surgery performed in the early stage tended to yield a better outcome.