Abstract
Purpose
To assess the relationship between age and the incidence and severity (determined by a grading system) of pinguecula in contact lens (CL) wearers, and to compare the grade of pinguecula between CL wearers and non-wearers.
Methods
A total of 600 CL wearers (94 wore hard CLs (HCLs) and 506 wore soft CLs (SCLs)) aged 11–60 years and 579 non-wearers aged 10–60 years were enrolled. The age, gender, medical history, ocular history, and grade of pinguecula at two locations (nasal and temporal) were determined in all subjects.
Results
There was an age-related increase in the grade of pinguecula among both CL wearers and non-wearers. The grade of pinguecula at the temporal conjunctiva was higher in CL wearers than in non-wearers (P=0.01907), whereas it was higher in HCL wearers than SCL wearers at both the nasal and temporal conjunctiva (P<0.00001 and P<0.00001).
Conclusions
This was the first assessment of the severity of pinguecula in a large consecutive series of CL wearers. Our results suggest that the use of CLs is an important risk factor for pinguecula.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Norihiko Yokoi of the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, for helpful discussions and suggestions.
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Mimura, T., Usui, T., Mori, M. et al. Pinguecula and contact lenses. Eye 24, 1685–1691 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.2010.120
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.2010.120
