Background: To evaluate the association between corneal central endothelial cell count (CECC) with reactivity for hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human T-lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV1), and syphilis from an eye bank database.
Methods: Eye bank data included 19,159 donors and 38,318 corneas screened for HBV, HCV, HIV, HTLV1, and syphilis from July 2007–May 2015. Linear and binary mixed effects models were used to determine the adjusted marginal effect a positive viral screening test had on CECC and morphology, respectively. The models were adjusted for age, race, gender, lens status, and death to preservation. Eyes with missing data were excluded from the analysis. Statistical significance was defined as P values <0.05.
Results: A total of 18,097 donors and 35,136 corneas were included in the final analysis. Average CECC for eyes with negative viral screening was 2,597±436 while the average CECC for eyes screening positive for syphilis, HBV, HCV, HIV, and HTLV1 were 2,638±392 (P=0.073), 2,569±419 (P=0.815), 2,603±363 (P=0.207), 2,615±360 (P=0.733), and 2,625±436 (P=0.362) respectively.
Conclusions: The presence of HBV, HCV, HIV, HTLV1, and syphilis display no association with a statistically significant difference in CECC when compared to normal non-diseased donors.
Abstract: In this review, recent studies regarding riboflavin-ultraviolet A (UVA) collagen cross-linking for the treatment of acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) were reviewed. English written studies about acanthamoeba, keratitis, riboflavin and collagen cross-linking were retrieved from PubMed search engine (
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed ). Although there were significant numbers of cases reporting the effectiveness of riboflavin-UVA collagen cross-linking in AK, experimental studies (in vivo and in vitro) failed to verify amoebicidal or cysticidal effect of riboflavin-UVA collagen cross-linking. In conclusion, the efficacy of riboflavin-UVA collagen cross-linking for the treatment of AK is still debatable. It is necessary to conduct a prospective case-control study for clear guidance for clinicians.
