RESUMO
PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) improvement in evaporative dry eye patients after treatment with intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy compared to punctal plug insertion. METHODS: A prospective comparative interventional study included 30 patients with moderate-to-severe evaporative dry eye. Patients' QOL affection before and after treatment was assessed by the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire. Fifteen patients were treated with IPL therapy (Group 1). The other 15 patients were treated with silicone punctal plug insertion (Group 2). RESULTS: Improvement of patients' QOL was noticed in all patients of Group 1, with significant improvement of OSDI score from a mean value of 56.9 to 22.9 (P = 0.001). Improvement was noticed in 80% of Group 2 patients (mean OSDI score pretreatment: 53.8 and posttreatment: 31.7, P = 0.017). The tear breakup time (TBUT) in Group 1 significantly improved from a mean of 3.2 s to 5.9 s (P = 0.001), whereas it showed no significant changes in Group 2 (mean TBUT pretreatment: 3.6 s and posttreatment: 3.9 s, P = 0.654). Complications occurred in 13.3% in Group 2, including punctal granuloma and proximal canalicular obstruction. No adverse effects were recorded in Group 1. CONCLUSION: IPL therapy had better results with more improvement of patients' QOL compared to punctal plugs. It also showed a better safety profile with no reported complications.
RESUMO
PURPOSE: To evaluate the choriocapillaris (CC) flow deficit (FD) in eyes with hyporeflective cores (HCs) inside drusen in eyes with intermediate age-related macular degeneration. METHODS: Intermediate age-related macular degeneration subjects underwent optical coherence tomography and optical coherence tomography angiography using a Cirrus HD-optical coherence tomography (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA). All B-scans were inspected for the presence of drusen with an HC that was defined as dark, condense materials inside drusen. Drusen regions delineated in the manufactures advanced retinal pigment epithelium elevation map were superimposed to the compensated CC optical coherence tomography angiography images. Quantitative analysis of CC FD% was performed under drusen with and without HCs, 150-µm-wide ring region around drusen with and without HCs, drusen-free region, and whole macula. RESULTS: Fifty eyes were included in this cross-sectional study. Twenty eyes had drusen with HCs. Thirty eyes without HCs were matched for age and sex. The CC FD% of whole macula was significantly greater in eyes with an HC than those without it (46.3% vs. 42.9%; P = 0.001). In eyes with HCs, regional CC FD% was the greater under drusen (59.8%) and in a 150-µm-wide ring surrounding drusen with HCs (53.0%) than corresponding regions for drusen without HCs (52.5% and 47.3%, respectively) (P < 0.005 in all, Bonferroni correction). The CC FD% in macular regions remote from drusen was 43.2%. CONCLUSION: Intermediate age-related macular degeneration eyes with HCs demonstrated more impaired CC flow, compared with those without this featured. The CC was also more severely impaired directly below these drusen with HCs. These findings highlight that the appearance of HCs may be an indicator of a more advanced disease phenotype.
