Ocular inflammation and dry eye.

Inflammation plays a pivotal role in dry eye pathogenesis. Recently, it has been demonstrated that specific markers of inflammation such as HLA-DR can be used to monitor the degree of inflammation of ocular surface epithelia. The aim of our project is to test the hypothesis that the use of an anti-inflammatory therapy, Loteprednolol etabonate, can significantly reduce the expression of HLA-DR on conjunctival epithelial cells of patients with dry eye when used for prolonged period of time with tapered doses, compared to artificial tears only.

Ocular surface inflammation plays a pivotal role in dry eye. The hypothesis of this study is that markers of inflammation expressed by conjunctival epithelial cells can be used to study inflammation and that the topical use of an anti-inflammatory drug such as Loteprednolol etabonate can reduce the level of ocular surface inflammation in dry eye patients.

7, 14, 28 and 56 days.

Treatment with Loteprednolol etabonate bid (bis in die = 2 times/day) for 14 days, once a day for 14 days and twice a week for 28 days will be given at the study group (N=10).

The control group (N=10) includes patients with symptoms and signs of dry eye as the treated group, but they will undergo the artificial tear (carbossimetilcellulose) with the same posology.