Ocular Findings of Pediatric Dry Eye Related to Graft-Versus-Host Disease

Dry eye disease in the young: A narrative review

Dry eye disease (DED), a multifactorial ocular disease that significantly impacts quality of life, is most commonly reported in adults. This review describes the prevalence, risk factors, diagnosis and management of DED in children. A literature search, conducted from January 2000-December 2022, identified 54 relevant publications. Using similar diagnostic criteria to those reported in adults, namely standardized questionnaires and evaluation of tear film homeostatic signs, the prevalence of DED in children ranged from 5.5% to 23.1 %. There was limited evidence for the influence of ethnicity in children, however some studies reported an effect of sex in older children. Factors independently associated with DED included digital device use, duration of digital device use, outdoor time and urban living, Rates of DED were higher in children with ocular allergy and underlying systemic diseases. Compared with similar studies in adults, the prevalence of a prior DED diagnosis or a diagnosis based on signs and symptoms was lower in children, but symptoms were commonly reported. Treatment options were similar to those in adults, including lifestyle modifications, blinking, management of lid disease and unpreserved lubricants in mild disease with escalating treatment with severity. Management requires careful exploration of symptoms, medical history and the diagnosis and management of ocular comorbidities such as allergy and anterior blepharitis. Appropriately powered population-based studies are required to understand the prevalence of and risk factors for DED in children. Development of age-appropriate thresholds for signs and symptoms of DED would support better diagnosis of disease and understanding of natural history.

Pediatric chronic graft-versus-host disease-related dry eye disease and the diagnostic association of potential clinical findings

Pediatric graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD)-related dry eye disease (DED) is often overlooked due to a lack of subjective symptoms and reliable testing, leading to irreversible corneal damage. To study the clinical findings contributing to the accurate detection of pediatric GVHD-related DED, a retrospective study of pediatric patients treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) at Keio University Hospital between 2004 and 2017 was conducted. Association and diagnostic values of ophthalmological findings for DED were analyzed. Twenty-six patients who had no ocular complications before HSCT were included in the study. Eleven (42.3%) patients developed new-onset DED. The cotton thread test showed excellent diagnostic accuracy in detecting DED (area under the receiver operating curve, 0.96; sensitivity, 0.95; specificity, 0.85) with a cut-off of 17 mm, which was higher than the conventional threshold of 10 mm. Additionally, the presence of filamentary keratitis (FK) and pseudomembranous conjunctivitis (PC) were significantly associated with the diagnosis of DED (p value, 0.003 and 0.001 for FK and PC, respectively) and displayed good diagnostic performance (sensitivity, 0.46 and 0.54; specificity, 0.97 and 0.97 for FK and PC, respectively). In conclusion, the cotton thread test with a new threshold, the presence of PC and FK, could be helpful for promptly detecting pediatric GVHD-related DED.