Dry Eye Increases With Duration Of Thyroid Disorder

The purpose of our study is to determine the association between thyroid disorder duration and dry eye

MN Eye hospital chennai, India

total of 122 eyes of 61 subjects with thyroid disorders and 76 eyes of 38 healthy controls were enrolled i The cases were divided into group1 (0 to 2 yrs), group2 (2 to 5 yrs) and group3 (>5 yrs) based on the duration of thyroid disorder. Subjects with Rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and corneal abnormalities were excluded . Measurements of Schirmer’s I and II, Tear breakup time and tear film height were done . Patients were evaluated for eye disease using freuh’s criteria. If they had Thyroid eye disease then signs of activity and severity were checked by VISA scoring and EUGOGO guidelines 

The distribution was not-normal .A Kruskal-Wallis H test showed  a statistically significant difference in values of Schirmer’s I among different duration of thyroid disorders with Kruskal-Wallis H(3)= 69, p< 0.0001 (95% CI) with a mean rank score of 129.80, 122.18, 72.01, 50.28 for the groups of controls, gp 1, gp 2 and gp 3 respectively.Kruskal-Wallis H test of TBUT showed statistically significant difference among gps with Kruskal-Wallis H (3) =110.09, p<0.001 (95% CI) with a mean rank score of 94.18, 144.33,56.27, and 22.85 for the gps of controls, gp 1, gp 2 and gp 3 respectively.  

There is a significant reduction of tear film profiles with an duration of thyroid disorder. Hence thyroid subjects should be screened for dry eye during their regular evaluation.