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Changes in ocular biomechanics after treatment for active Graves’ orbitopathy

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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the changes in ocular biomechanical properties in active moderate-to-severe Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) after intravenous glucocorticoids (IVGCs), and to clarify correlations between clinical findings and ocular biomechanical properties.

Methods

A prospective study. A total of 20 consecutive GO patients and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects were included. GO was diagnosed on the basis of the recommendation by the European Group on Graves’ Orbitopathy (EUGOGO), and disease activity was assessed by the clinical activity score (CAS). Patients were assigned to receive once weekly IVGCs (0.5 g, then 0.25 g, 6 weeks each). All participants received a full ophthalmic examination and biomechanical evaluation was performed with dynamic Scheimpflug analyzer (Corvis ST) at baseline and 12th weeks after therapy.

Results

The biomechanically corrected intraocular pressure (bIOP) in GO patients was significantly higher than that in healthy subjects. In contrast, the whole eye movement (WEM) in GO patients was significantly lower than in healthy subjects after adjusting for bIOP. The CAS, NOSPECS score, and exophthalmos were significantly positively correlated with the bIOP and negatively correlated with the WEM after adjusting for bIOP, CCT and age. The WEM significantly increased, whereas bIOP significantly decreased after IVGCs (P < 0.001, P = 0.001 respectively). The overall response rate at the 12th week was 85% (17 of 20).

Conclusions

The changes of ocular biomechanical properties measured by Corvis ST were an objective indicator of inflammatory activity and severity of GO. Combining CAS and ocular biomechanical properties could better evaluate the therapeutic outcome of active moderate-to-severe GO.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Wenjing Wu for her useful advice and critical review.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers. 81670884).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical College of Ophthalmology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China

    H. X. Li, X. H. Zhao, Y. Song, B. K. Mu & Y. Wang

  2. Tianjin Key Lab of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Tianjin Eye Hospital, Tianjin Eye Institute, No 4. Gansu Road, He-ping District, Tianjin, 300020, China

    H. X. Li, X. H. Zhao, Y. Song, B. K. Mu, Y. Pan, H. Zhao & Y. Wang

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Contributions

Conceptualization: HXL, YP, and XHZ; Methodology: HXL, HZ, and XHZ; Formal analysis and investigation: HXL, XHZ, and BKM; Writing-original draft preparation: HXL; Writing-review and editing: HXL, YS, XHZ, and YW; Funding acquisition: YW; Resources: HXL and YW; Supervision: YW.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Y. Wang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Tianjin Eye Hospital and Tianjin Medical University and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Li, H.X., Zhao, X.H., Song, Y. et al. Changes in ocular biomechanics after treatment for active Graves’ orbitopathy. J Endocrinol Invest 44, 453–458 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40618-020-01322-5

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