Posters

Ocular surface disease in patients with Parkinson's disease

Poster Details

First Author: E. Kanonidou GREECE

Co Author(s):    G. Karagiannidis-Stampoulis   P. Kalouda   N. Lakidis   I. Kamaras   G. Sakkias        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Patients with Parkinson disease often manifest signs of ocular surface disease. However, few of them complain about symptoms of dry eyes, as most of them remain asymptomatic. Our purpose was to study the association of Parkinson disease with symptoms of ocular surface disease.

Setting:

Department of Ophthalmology, Hippokrateion General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Methods:

Ocular surface disease symptoms assessment was performed using “Ocular Surface Disease Index” form, translated in Greek. A brief ocular and medical history was taken. Patients with Parkinson disease were asked to answer 12 questions about symptoms associated with ocular surface disease and the OSDI score was calculated

Results:

71 patients (54 males) participated in the study. Their mean age was 66.8 years old. Only 8 of them reported dry eye symptoms at their history. In the OSDI form 23 reported light sensitivity, 14 foreign body sensation, 20 painful/irritated eyes and 21 complained of blurry vision. 24 of them had difficulty in reading and 19 in watching television. 41 patients had an OSDI score below 10.4, while only 10 of them had a score above 31.2.

Conclusions:

Our results seem to agree with the most recent findings, which indicate that, even though patients with Parkinson disease are susceptible to ocular surface disease, due to autonomic disfunction affecting lacrimation and reduced blink rate, many of them remain asymptomatic, because of decreased corneal sensitivity, also associated with Parkinson disease.

Financial Disclosure:

NONE