Background: The ocular manifestations of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vary from acute follicular, pseudomembranous, and hemorrhagic conjunctivitis to keratoconjunctivitis with subepithelial infiltrates and dendritic lesions. Similar to other respiratory viruses, such as adenoviruses, it is thought that COVID-19 may impact the cornea. However, its impact on the cornea and anterior segment parameters are currently poorly understood.
Objective: This study aims to assess the corneal endothelial cell morphology and anterior segment parameters in patients who have recovered from COVID-19.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the COVID-19 group comprised 34 patients who had been diagnosed with and recovered from COVID-19, while the control group comprised age- and sex-matched individuals without any systemic or ocular diseases. The endothelial cell density (ECD), coefficient of variation (CV) of cell area, hexagonal cell percentage (HEX), anterior chamber depth (ACD), central corneal thickness (CCT), horizontal anterior chamber diameter (HACD), iridocorneal angle (ICA), horizontal visible iris diameter (HVID), pupillary diameter (PD), and keratometry values (K1 and K2) were analyzed for each participant. The differences in each of these between the groups were analyzed using either an independent samples t test or a Mann-Whitney U test based on the normality of the data.
Results: Regarding corneal endothelial cell morphology, the ECDs for the COVID-19 and control groups were 2278.50 ± 186.78 cells/mm2 and 2420.15 ± 222.25 cells/mm2, respectively (p = 0.002). A significant increase was noted in CV values in the COVID-19 group compared with the control group (p < 0.001). The HEX values for the COVID-19 and control groups were 56.26 ± 5.75 and 61.50 ± 3.63, respectively (p < 0.001). Regarding the anterior segment parameters, no significant differences were observed between the groups (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: It was hypothesized that individuals who had recovered from COVID-19 would demonstrate a reduction in their endothelial functional preserves. A decrease in ECD and HEX and an increase in CV were observed in the individuals during their early post-recovery period from COVID-19.
Background: Progressive and irreversible vision loss has been shown to place a patient at risk of mental health problems such as anxiety. However, the reported prevalence of anxiety symptoms and disorders among eye disease patients vary across studies. Thus, this study aims to clarify the estimated prevalence of anxiety symptoms and disorders among ophthalmic disease patients.
Methods: Relevant studies on the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and disorders among eye disease patients were collected through international databases, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. A random-effects model was used to determine the pooled prevalence of anxiety symptoms and disorders among ophthalmic disease patients.
Results: The 95 included studies yielded a pooled prevalence of 31.2% patients with anxiety symptoms and 19.0% with anxiety disorders among subjects with ophthalmic disease. Pediatric patients were more anxious (58.6%) than adults (29%). Anxiety symptoms were most prevalent in uveitis (53.5%), followed by dry eye disease (DED, 37.2%), retinitis pigmentosa (RP, 36.5%), diabetic retinopathy (DR, 31.3%), glaucoma (30.7%), myopia (24.7%), age-related macular degeneration (AMD, 21.6%), and cataract (21.2%) patients. Anxiety disorders were most prevalent in thyroid eye disease (TED, 28.9%), followed by glaucoma (22.2%) and DED (11.4%). When compared with healthy controls, there was a twofold increase on the prevalence of anxiety symptoms (OR = 1.912, 95% CI 1.463-2.5, p < 0.001) and anxiety disorders (OR = 2.281, 95% CI 1.168-4.454, p = 0.016).
Conclusion: Anxiety symptoms and disorders are common problems associated with ophthalmic disease patients. Thus, comprehensive and appropriate treatments are necessary for treating anxiety symptoms and disorders among ophthalmic disease patients.