Does corneal thickness result in the Menicon Z 30-day continuous wear and ACUVUE 7-day extended-wear contact lens clinical trial?
Patients wearing high-Dk RGP contact lenses for continuous wear may have thinner corneas (within the normal thickness range) probably because of minimal hypoxia-induced corneal stromal swelling; RGP-induced reversible corneal epithelial compression; deceased epithelial sloughing; or long-term contact lens-induced keratocyte apoptosis. Patients wearing hydrogel contact lenses for extended wear may have thicker corneas because of hypoxia-induced corneal stromal swelling. Additional evidence of corneal hypoxic stress is seen in the higher prevalence of striae and epithelial microcysts in the hydrogel group and greater variability of corneal thickness measurements in the soft contact lens group in our results.
Our results are limited by the small sample size and replication is needed; however, this genomic scan uncovered new genes associated with metabolism and inflammatory pathways that may affect SAT volume in ARV-treated HIV-infected patients.