TY - JOUR
T1 - Vitamin A-responsive punctate keratopathy in xerophthalmia
AU - Sommer, Alfred
AU - Emran, Nani
AU - Tamba, Tien
N1 - Funding Information:
From the Nutritional Blindness Prevention Project, Bandung, Indonesia (Drs. Sommer, Emran, and Tamba), and the Wilmer Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland (Dr. Sommer). The Nutritional Blindness Prevention Project is a joint undertaking of the Ministry of Health, Government of Indonesia, and Helen Keller International, New York, N.Y., with substantial funding from the United States Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C. This study was presented at the International Symposium on Cornea Research, Kyoto, Japan, May 13, 1978.
PY - 1979/3
Y1 - 1979/3
N2 - Slit-lamp examination of 78 cases of xerophthalmia and 29 controls matched for age, sex, and locale indicated a direct correlation between the presence, density, and extent of punctate epithelial keratopathy and the severity of corneal and noncorneal involvement. Only 7% (four of 58) of control eyes but 60% (six of ten) of cases with confirmed night blindness, 75% (47 of 63) of eyes with conjunctival xerosis, and all eyes with corneal xerosis (47) were affected. Within one week of high-dose systemic vitamin A therapy all affected corneas had improved. None of ten patients receiving low-dose systemic therapy showed any improvement over a two-month period, whereas 61% of involved corneas actually deteriorated in the interim. Punctate epithelial keratopathy appears to be the earliest corneal manifestation of xerophthalmia, and is already present in the vast majority of cases classically considered free of corneal involvement.
AB - Slit-lamp examination of 78 cases of xerophthalmia and 29 controls matched for age, sex, and locale indicated a direct correlation between the presence, density, and extent of punctate epithelial keratopathy and the severity of corneal and noncorneal involvement. Only 7% (four of 58) of control eyes but 60% (six of ten) of cases with confirmed night blindness, 75% (47 of 63) of eyes with conjunctival xerosis, and all eyes with corneal xerosis (47) were affected. Within one week of high-dose systemic vitamin A therapy all affected corneas had improved. None of ten patients receiving low-dose systemic therapy showed any improvement over a two-month period, whereas 61% of involved corneas actually deteriorated in the interim. Punctate epithelial keratopathy appears to be the earliest corneal manifestation of xerophthalmia, and is already present in the vast majority of cases classically considered free of corneal involvement.
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U2 - 10.1016/0002-9394(79)90072-2
DO - 10.1016/0002-9394(79)90072-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 434092
AN - SCOPUS:0018415151
SN - 0002-9394
VL - 87
SP - 330
EP - 333
JO - American journal of ophthalmology
JF - American journal of ophthalmology
IS - 3
ER -