Purpose

To investigate the effect of long-term extended soft contact lens wear on limbal and central corneal cell morphology, and limbal architecture.

Methods

Each participant attended a study visit involving in vivo confocal microscopy of central corneal and limbal epithelium. Scans were graded by five masked graders for three features: central epithelial irregularity, limbal epithelial irregularity and the prominence of palisades of Vogt. The variability of grades between different graders and the difference of grades between extended wearers and daily soft/non-contact lens wearers were assessed.

Results

Nineteen participants (9 extended soft contact lens wearers and 10 daily soft/non-contact lens wearers) aged 31–65 years were enrolled in this study. Scans from 37 eyes were included in the analysis. Agreement between graders for each feature was moderate to good with inter class correlation >0.7. While there were no significant differences in central epithelial cell irregularity (p = 0.527) and the prominence of palisade of Vogt (p = 0.182) between extended or daily soft/non-contact lens wearers, limbal epithelial cell irregularity showed a trend with increased irregularity in extended soft contact lens wearers (p = 0.091).

Conclusions

While no differences in limbal cell morphology and structure or central epithelial cell was found in this subjective grading study of extended wearers compared to daily soft/non-contact lens wearers, further studies using a larger sample size or a longitudinal study design are warranted.

中文翻译：

---

一项初步研究调查长期佩戴隐形眼镜对角膜缘和中央角膜形态的影响

目的

研究长期长期佩戴软性隐形眼镜对角膜缘和中央角膜细胞形态以及角膜缘结构的影响。

方法

每个参与者都参加了一项研究访问，涉及中央角膜和角膜缘上皮的体内共聚焦显微镜检查。扫描由五名蒙面评分员对三个特征进行分级：中央上皮不规则、边缘上皮不规则和 Vogt 栅栏的突出。评估了不同分级者之间的等级差异以及长期佩戴者和日常佩戴柔软/非接触镜佩戴者之间的等级差异。

结果

本研究招募了 19 名年龄在 31-65 岁之间的参与者（9 名长期软性隐形眼镜佩戴者和 10 名日常软性/非隐形眼镜佩戴者）。来自 37 只眼睛的扫描包括在分析中。每个特征的评分者之间的一致性中等至良好，类间相关性 >0.7。虽然 长期佩戴或每天佩戴软性/非隐形眼镜的人在中央上皮细胞不规则性 ( p  = 0.527) 和 Vogt 栅栏突出 ( p = 0.182)方面没有显着差异，但角膜缘上皮细胞不规则性显示出不规则性增加的趋势在长型软性隐形眼镜佩戴者中（p  = 0.091）。

结论

虽然与日常佩戴软性/非隐形眼镜的佩戴者相比，在这项长期佩戴者的主观分级研究中 没有 发现角膜缘细胞形态和结构或中央上皮细胞的 差异，但有必要使用更大的样本量或纵向研究设计进行进一步研究。