A Cross Sectional study to Evaluate the Role of Corneal Topography and Allergen Skin Test in Children with Allergic Conjunctivitis

OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to prevent keratoconus progression by counselling to avoid rubbing of the eye and to avoid allergens to reduce ocular morbidity related to allergic conjunctivitis. METHODS: Thirty seven patients with allergic conjunctivitis who met the eligibility criteria, were enrolled in the study, after obtaining assent from children and informed consent from parents. Corneal topography and allergen skin test were performed for all participants. Data was summarized using mean (SD)/median (IQR) for continuous variables and frequency and percentage for categorical variables. All the clinical and demographical variables were compared between presence and absence of keratoconus and positive skin prick test using independent-t-test if the variables are continuous and chi-square if the variables are categorical. All tests were two-sided at alpha (α) =0.05 level of significance. Results: 1) Out of 37 studied subjects, 19 (51.35%) underwent skin testing. Among them, the following data was tabulated and table 4 was obtained in comparison with limbal papillae. The odds ratio for association of skin test positivity and limbal papillae was 0.42 with 95% CI of 0.02 – 8.05. No statistical significance established between both (p value 0.56) 2) Out of 37 participants, 29 (78.4%) consented for skin allergen test while 8 (21.6%) were unwilling as it was an invasive procedure and assuming it to be a painful procedure. One child had already undergone an allergic skin test in the past. Of the 29 who gave consent, only 19 (51.4%) underwent the procedure and among them 13 (68.4%) were found to be positive for one or more allergens and 6 (31.6%) had negative results. 3) Among the skin test positivity, the male: female ratio was found to be 1.6:1. Among males, 8 (72.73%) and among females, 5(62.5%) were found to be positive for allergen. 4) Major allergens found positive among children with allergic conjunctivitis were cockroach – 8 (61.54%) followed by dust mite (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus) -6 ...