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Graft-Versus-Host Disease

Baseline profiles of ocular surface and tear dynamics after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with or without chronic GVHD-related dry eye

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 45, pages 1077–1083 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

We evaluated ocular surface alterations in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) recipients with or without chronic GVHD-related dry eye in a prospective study. Fifty eyes of 25 post-HSCT patients and 28 eyes of 14 age-matched healthy controls were included. Meibomian gland (MG) obstruction, tear evaporation rate, corneal sensitivity (CS), Schirmer test-I, tear break-up time (BUT) and ocular surface vital staining were examined. Conjunctival impression and brush cytology specimens were collected to evaluate the goblet cell density (GCD) and the inflammatory cell numbers. Obvious MG obstruction, decreased CS and enhanced tear evaporation rate were found in post-HSCT patients compared with normal controls. In addition, decreased conjunctival GCD, increased conjunctival squamous metaplasia and inflammatory cells were noted in cGVHD-related dry eyes compared with normal controls and post-HSCT without dry eye subjects. Furthermore, the conjunctival inflammatory cells were significantly higher in severe dry eyes compared with mild dry eyes (P=0.03). We found comprehensive ocular surface alteration in post-HSCT patients, regardless of whether they had cGVHD-related dry eye or not. The results suggest that the extent of inflammatory process seems to have a pivotal role in the outcome of the cGVHD-related dry eye.

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Acknowledgements

This work was presented in part at the 60th Japan Congress of Clinical Ophthalmology, 5–8 October 2006, Kyoto, Japan and ARVO 2007, Fort Lauderdale, USA. This work was supported by a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture #20592058.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Y Wang, Y Ogawa, Y Tatematsu, M Uchino, M Kamoi, N Okada & K Tsubota

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, The Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Y Wang

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, Tokyo Dental College, Chiba, Japan

    M Dogru

  4. J&J Ocular Surface and Visual Optics Department, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    M Dogru

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    S Okamoto

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  1. Y Wang
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Correspondence to Y Ogawa or M Dogru.

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Wang, Y., Ogawa, Y., Dogru, M. et al. Baseline profiles of ocular surface and tear dynamics after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with or without chronic GVHD-related dry eye. Bone Marrow Transplant 45, 1077–1083 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2009.312

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