La fase di realizzazione del nostro programma per l'analisi delle patologie dovute all'utilizzo di lenti a contatto (staining corneale) è ormai terminata.
Siamo fieri di annunciare che il duro lavoro svolto comincia ora ad avere riscontri anche nel mondo scientifico: è stato infatti accettato il nostro lavoro realizzato in collaborazione con il centro di contattologia dell'università del salento alla conferenza BCLA (British Contact Lens Association) Clinical Conference and Exhibition 2010 che si terrà a Birmingham UK dal 27 al 30 Maggio.
Di seguito riportiamo l'abstract del poster accettato al BCLA:
Quantitative analysis of corneal staining after a peg400 eye drop instillation in mild dry eye patients
1Giancarlo GM Montani, Optometrist, 2Francesco FR Romano, PhD
1Centro di ricerche in Contattologia Università del salento, Lecce, Italy, 2Innovative Solution for Eyes (ISE), Lecce, Italy
Purpose: The study aims to evaluate the effect of PEG400(0.25%) + HA(0.20%) and low osmolarity eye drops on modification of corneal staining in dry eye patients.
Method: In this contralateral, single blind study, the effect of PEG400 (0.25%) + HA(0.20%) and low osmolarity eye drops was studied on 20 patients (21-52 years) affected by dry eye (>level 2, DEWS grading) and presenting corneal staining (>type 1, CCLRU scale).
The corneal staining was assessed before and after 21 days, during which the patients applied three times a day 2 drops of eye drops in the right eye and 2 drops of saline solution in the left eye.
The digital images were taken using a slit lamp (Topcon SLD7-DV3) and a yellow filter "Wratten#12" one minute after sodium fluorescein instillation. The analysis was performed by a new image processing software realized by Innovative Solutions for Eyes (ISE). The software allows the quantitative analysis of corneal staining and applies a new classification considering the exact staining area (in mm2).
Results: The corneal staining in right eye was 2.473 (SD=0.586) before and 0.226 (SD=0.452) after the eye drops use (significant difference, p<0.0001). The corneal staining in left eye was 2.27 (SD=0.752) before and 2.1 (SD=0.614) after the saline solution use (not significant difference, p=0.331).
Conclusions: This study indicates the effectiveness of PEG 400 eye drops to reduce corneal staining. These results could be explained by the properties of this formulation: 1)tear film osmolarity reduction; 2)tear film break-up time increase (PEG400); 3)epithelial cells migration and regeneration (hyaluronic acid)