Epithelial pigment lide in contact len wearer: A poible marker for contact len-aociated tre on corneal epithelium

PURPOE: To compare the incidence of epithelial pigment lide among wearer of variou type of contact lene. METHOD: Propectively, we tudied 432 eye of 432 patient. The patient were eparated into 6 group: hard contact len (HCL) wearer (n = 166), conventional oft contact len (CCL) wearer (n = 30), extended dipoable len (EDCL) wearer (n = 46), frequent replacement CL (FRCL) wearer (n = 60), daily dipoable CL (DDCL) wearer (n = 65), and normal control (n = 65). The incidence of prominent pigment lide, defined a pike-like epithelial opacitie in the corneal limbu and longer than 1 mm from the bae to the apex of the wedge-haped proce detected by lit-lamp examination, wa compared in thee 6 group. The relationhip between the incidence of prominent pigment lide and the length of contact len wear wa examined. REULT: The overall incidence of prominent pigment lide in the CCL, EDCL, HCL, FRCL, DDCL, and normal group wa 63.3, 23.9, 13.9, 8.3, 7.7, and 4.6%, repectively. The incidence of prominent pigment lide in the CCL and EDCL group wa ignificantly higher than that in the control group. A higher incidence of prominent pigment lide wa correlated with longer wearing period in each group. CONCLUION: The preence of epithelial pigment lide may be a marker for contact len-aociated tre to the corneal epithelium