Comparison of corneal thickness and biomechanical properties between North African and French patients.

PURPOSE: To determine whether corneal thickness and rigidity vary between French and North African refractive surgery candidates. SETTING: Three clinics in North Africa and 1 hospital in France. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: In part 1, the central corneal thickness (CCT) in North African patients and French patients having preoperative examinations was retrospectively compared. In part 2, the biomechanical properties of the corneas in the 2 groups were prospectively compared. Comparisons were performed using the Student t and chi-square tests and multivariate linear and logistic regression. RESULTS: The retrospective study comprised 1662 patients from North Africa and 221 patients from France and the prospective study, 249 and 110, respectively. After adjustment for sex, age, and steepest keratometry, the mean CCT was statistically significantly thinner in North African patients (P<.0001). More than one fourth of North African patients had corneas thinner than 500 µm (28.9% versus 7.7% of French patients). Of patients with thin corneas, the mean corneal resistance factor (CRF) was statistically significantly lower in North African patients (P<.0001); there was no significant difference in corneal hysteresis. This remained true after adjustment for CCT (CCT-adjusted difference in CRF between groups: -0.78; range -1.27 to -0.28; P=.002). CONCLUSION: Corneas were thinner in North African patients than in French patients, and the CRF was different even when CCT was taken into accounted. More research is needed to determine whether these differences are associated with an additional risk for ectasia after laser in situ keratomileusis.

[Ocular findings in megaloblastic anemia associated with diabetes. A case report]. / Complications oculaires de l'association anemie de biermer et diabete. A propos d'un cas.

Ocular involvements of Biermer's anaemia are rarely reported in literature. We present a case of Biermer's anaemia associated with diabetes. Ocular examination showed important conjinctival paleness, diffuse retinal ischemia, Roth's tasks, macular oedema and ischemic optic neuropathy. The patient was treated with vitamin B12 intramusculary. A month later, on examination, we noted a regression of optic neuropathy, the aggravation of ischemic retinopathy and persistence of macular oedema. The patient was treated with laser photocoagulation. The majority of ocular manifestations are reversible if treatment is underlaken early. The combination of diabetes with Biermer's anemia deteriorates the ischemic retinopathy and aggavates its prognosis.

[Lofgren syndrome revealed by eyelid tumor]. / Syndrome de Löfgren revele par une tumeur palpebrale.

INTRODUCTION: The Lofgren syndrom is a particular variety of sarcoidose. The ocular attack is dominated in this syndrome by anterior uveitis. More rarely the eyelids and the orbitary structures are attached. PURPOSE: In this work, we report a Lofgren syndrome case revealed by eyelid tumor. OBSERVATION: It is about 42 year-old patient who consults for a right inferior eye-lid tumefaction developped for 2 months. The diagnosis of Lofgren syndrome was evoqued because of the association of fever, arthritis, erythema nodosum, tuberculin anergia, hypercalcinuria and mediastinal adenopathy at thoracic scan-tomography. The diagnosis was then confirmed by biopsy of palpebral tumor which showed multiple epithelioid and gigantocellular granuloma without caseous necrosis. CONCLUSION: The Lofgren syndrome is a multivisceral chronic affection. The eye and its annexes constitute frequent cibles of this affection for which they react by a diverse and rich symptomalogy and which can be presented by eye-lid tumors with orbital extension.