2Prof. Dr., Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazit Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Göz Hastalıkları, Ankara - Türkiye Purpose: To investigate the effect of topical antiglaucoma medications (AGM) on corneal epithelial thickness (CET).
Materials and Methods: The CET measured by optical coherence tomography mapping of 58 patients has been compared within the study group and to 17 controls retrospectively. The eyes were selected randomly and operated eyes were excluded.
Results: Mean age of the participants was 64.1±10.6 years, and distribution of male/female ratio was 34/41. The mean age and gender distribution was similar in patient and control groups. The diagnosis was primary open angle glaucoma in 33, pseudoexfoliation glaucoma in 19 and angle-closure glaucoma in 6 patients. Fifteen patients had newly diagnosed glaucoma and receiving no AGM. Twenty- eight patients and 15 patients were under treatment with 1 and more than 1 drugs, respectively. AGM were prostaglandin analogue (PGA), combination with PGA and non-PGA in 13, 18 and 12 patients, respectively. The measurements in patients revealed that the corneal minimum, superior (Esup), inferior (Einf) and minimum epithelial (Emin) thicknesses were lower and standard deviation of epithelium (Estd) was higher than the control group. The patients under AGM treatment had lower Esup, Einf, Emin and higher Estd than the newly diagnosed cases. Patients who received multiple AGM had lower Esup, Einf ve maximum epithelial thickness (Emax) than the patients under single drug treatment. There was no difference in CET measurements regarding the glaucoma type, AGM type and medication duration.
Conclusion: Use of AGM causes thinning and irregularity of the corneal epithelium which is related with the number of drugs.
Keywords : glaucoma, corneal epithelium, thickness, antiglaucoma medications