Abstract
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the association between corneal images provided by in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) with clinical parameters and conjunctival expression of HLA-DR antigen in patients with dry eye disease (DED). METHODS: Two hundred fourteen eyes of 214 patients with DED were analyzed, consisting of 2 groups of patients - 63 with autoimmune dry eye disease (AIDED) and 151 with non-autoimmune dry eye disease (NAIDED). Patients underwent a full clinical examination, including symptom screening, using the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire, and objective analysis of DED signs by Schirmer's testing, tear break-up time (TBUT), Oxford's test, and IVCM corneal imaging. The IVCM scoring criteria were based on corneal sub-basal nerve density (ND), nerve morphology (NM), and inflammatory cell (IC) density. Quantification of conjunctival HLA-DR antigen was performed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: The total IVCM score (T-IVCM) as well as the IVCM-IC subscore (sc) were positively correlated with HLA-DR levels with r = 0.3, P < 0.001 and r = 0.3, P < 0.01, respectively in the total population of patients with DED. The IVCM-NDsc was negatively correlated with TBUT in patients with AIDED (r = -0.2, P < 0.05) and with the Schirmer's test in patients with NAIDED (r = -0.24, P < 0.05). However, the IVCM-NMsc was positively correlated with the Oxford score only in patients with AIDED (r = 0.3, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed IVCM scoring system showed significant correlations with clinical parameters along with conjunctival HLA-DR quantification in patients with DED. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: The IVCM grading score represents an interesting point of commonality among clinical parameters, imaging, and molecular investigation of the ocular surface.