Blanco-Vázquez Marta, Novo-Diez Andrea, Vázquez Amanda, Enríquez-de-Salamanca Amalia, González-García María J, Calonge Margarita
Institute of Applied Ophthalmobiology (IOBA), Universidad de Valladolid (UVa), Campus Miguel Delibes, Paseo de Belén 17, 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Campus Miguel Delibes, Paseo de Belén 17, 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
J Clin Med. 2025 Jul 24;14(15):5250. doi: 10.3390/jcm14155250.
: The purpose of this study was to clinically characterize the lacrimal functional unit (LFU) of patients with chronic ocular pain associated with dry eye disease (DED). : Ninety-three participants were included in this cross-sectional study: 28 patients with chronic ocular pain associated with DED (pain-DED), 35 patients with DED but no pain (no pain-DED), and 30 subjects without DED or ocular pain (controls). The following examinations were performed: symptom questionnaires, visual function assessment, tear meniscus, ocular surface evaluation, meibography, corneal sensitivity, Schirmer test, and in vivo corneal confocal microscopy. : Both DED groups presented increased DED-related symptoms ( < 0.001), corneal staining ( < 0.001), Meibomian gland loss ( < 0.010), and dendritic cell density ( < 0.001) compared with controls. Comparing both DED groups, the pain-DED group showed higher DED-related symptoms ( < 0.002) and increased microneuroma density ( < 0.001). Additionally, significant positive correlations were observed between symptom questionnaires and corneal staining (vs. OSDI: r = 0.514, < 0.001; vs. m-SIDEQ: r = 0.504, < 0.001; vs. NRS: r = 0.361, < 0.001; vs. WBFPRS: r = 0.317, = 0.002), dendritic cell density (vs. OSDI: r = 0.429, < 0.001; vs. m-SIDEQ: r = 0.440, < 0.001), and microneuroma density (vs. NRS: r = 0.405, < 0.001; vs. WBFPRS: r = 0.416, < 0.001). : Differences in the LFU, especially in the morphology of sub-basal corneal nerves, are related to the presence of DED and chronic ocular pain and, along with ocular clinical questionnaires, can help phenotype these patients.
本研究的目的是从临床角度对患有与干眼症（DED）相关的慢性眼痛患者的泪液功能单位（LFU）进行特征描述。：93名参与者纳入了这项横断面研究：28名患有与DED相关的慢性眼痛患者（疼痛性DED），35名患有DED但无疼痛的患者（无疼痛性DED），以及30名无DED或眼痛的受试者（对照组）。进行了以下检查：症状问卷、视觉功能评估、泪液半月板、眼表评估、睑板腺造影、角膜敏感性、泪液分泌试验和体内角膜共焦显微镜检查。：与对照组相比，两个DED组的DED相关症状均增加（<0.001）、角膜染色增加（<0.001）、睑板腺缺失增加（<0.010）和树突状细胞密度增加（<0.001）。比较两个DED组，疼痛性DED组显示出更高的DED相关症状（<0.002）和微神经瘤密度增加（<0.001）。此外，在症状问卷与角膜染色之间观察到显著正相关（与OSDI相比：r = 0.514，<0.001；与m - SIDEQ相比：r = 0.504，<0.001；与NRS相比：r = 0.361，<0.001；与WBFPRS相比：r = 0.317，= 0.002）、树突状细胞密度（与OSDI相比：r = 0.429，<0.001；与m - SIDEQ相比：r = 0.440，<0.001）以及微神经瘤密度（与NRS相比：r = 0.405，<0.001；与WBFPRS相比：r = 0.416，<0.001）。：LFU的差异，尤其是角膜基底膜下神经的形态差异，与DED和慢性眼痛的存在有关，并且与眼部临床问卷一起，可以帮助对这些患者进行表型分析。
