RESEARCH ARTICLE
Prevalence of Punctate Keratopathy of West Indians in a Colombian Referral Center and a New Name Proposed: Rice´s Keratopathy
Virgilio Galvis 1, 2, Alejandro Tello*, 1, 2, Luis C Jaramillo 2, 3, David Paredes 2, 3, Paul A Camacho 3, 4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2015Volume: 9
First Page: 12
Last Page: 16
Publisher ID: TOOPHTJ-9-12
DOI: 10.2174/1874364101509010012
Article History:
Received Date: 2/10/2014Revision Received Date: 20/1/2015
Acceptance Date: 22/1/2015
Electronic publication date: 30 /1/2015
Collection year: 2015
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Purpose :
To perform a prevalence study of Punctate Keratopathy of West Indians in Colombian individuals and to propose a new name for the condition.
Methods :
Prospective, population-based epidemiological study. All patients evaluated between November 1 and December 31, 2012, in the Centro Oftalmológico Virgilio Galvis and Fundación Oftalmológica de Santander (FOSCAL), Floridablanca, Colombia, with clinical findings of white corneal opacities corresponding to Punctate Keratopathy of West Indians were identified. Careful slit-lamp examination was performed for clinical diagnosis and findings were reported in the electronic medical record indicating number and location of the lesions. Prevalence was calculated for the total population, and for gender and age groups. Furthermore a literature review was performed and a new name for the condition proposed.
Results :
In the whole group of patients, prevalence was 1.0%. No one case was diagnosed in a patient younger than 21 year-old. No one lesion was located within 2.5 mm of the corneal apex. 96% of affected patients had unilateral involvement. 58.5% of eyes had a single corneal lesion; 7% of eyes had 6 or 7 corneal lesions.
Conclusion :
The condition heretofore known as Punctate Keratopathy of West Indians was present in 1% of our patients in Colombia (South America). Thus, this non-infectious, non-inflammatory, asymptomatic ailment of unknown etiology is not restricted to people of Antillean descent, or who have lived in these islands. We propose the new name “Rice's keratopathy". Age and male gender were independent risk factors for the presence of the keratopathy.
