This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Corneal Disorders  • Drug Therapy  • Adverse Effects  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Matthias G. Wirtitsch, MD; Oliver Findl, MD; Harald Heinzl, PhD; Wolfgang Drexler, PhD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2007;125(10):1345-1350.

Objective  To investigate the effect of dorzolamide hydrochloride on central corneal thickness in humans with cornea guttata.

Design  Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-masked, 2-drug crossover study with 10 patients with cornea guttata and 10 healthy controls, who had mean endothelial cell counts of 988 and 2377 cells/mm², respectively. Study medications were 2% dorzolamide and placebo drops applied 3 times a day for 4 weeks. Central corneal thickness measurements using ACMaster (Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Jena, Germany) and Goldmann applanation tonometry were performed at baseline, 1 day, 1 week, and 4 weeks.

Results  The mean increases in central corneal thickness after 4 weeks in eyes with cornea guttata treated with dorzolamide and placebo were 26.3 µm (95% confidence interval, 8.8 to 43.7) and 3.3 µm (95% confidence interval, –0.5 to 7.1), respectively. No statistically significant changes were measured in the healthy control group. Dorzolamide caused a significant decrease in intraocular pressure (P < .01) while placebo did not cause significant changes (P = .50).

Conclusion  Application of dorzolamide for 4 weeks resulted in a statistically significant increase in central corneal thickness in patients with compromised corneal endothelium. These results indicate that patients with corneal endothelial problems receiving dorzolamide therapy should be monitored.

Author Affiliations: Department of Ophthalmology (Drs Wirtitsch and Findl), Core Unit for Medical Statistics and Informatics (Dr Heinzl), and Center for Biomedical Engineering and Physics (Dr Drexler), Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Department of Ophthalmology, Hietzing Hospital, Vienna, Austria (Dr Wirtitsch); Moorfields Eye Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom (Dr Findl); and Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom (Dr Drexler).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?