Preliminary investigation on tear film alterations in latent herpes stromal keratitis

Abstract To investigate tear film alterations in patients with latent herpes stromal keratitis (HSK). Prospective comparative case series study. Twenty-four patients with latent HSK in one eye and 28 age and gender matched healthy individuals were recruited. All subjects were evaluated by subjective symptoms of dry eye, tear film break-up time (BUT) and Schirmer I test (SIT). Laser in vivo confocal microscopic investigation was performed in 12 patients with severe tear film instability (BUT ≤ 5 s). Data distribution and homogeneity of variance was analyzed. Statistical comparisons of the mean values between different groups were performed using Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney test or student t-test. Most of latent HSK patients (n = 22/24, 91.7%) had symptoms as dryness, burning sensation, redness and foreign body sensation. Both eyes of patients with latent HSK had hyposecretion (SIT, control eyes (16.2 ± 3.2) mm/5 min; affected eyes (10.4 ± 7.8) mm/5 min; lateral eyes (11.2 ± 8.8) mm/5 min; control and affected, U = 135.0, P