Giuseppe D'Amico Ricci1, Claudia Del Turco1,2, Elena Belcastro1,2, Marco Palisi3, Mario R Romano4, Antonio Pinna5, Claudio Panico1,2, Carlo La Spina1,2. 1. U.O. Oculistica 2, Turin Eye Hospital, ASL Città di Torino, Turin, Italy. 2. Ophthalmology Unit, Humanitas Gradenigo Hospital, Turin, Italy. 3. General Surgey Unit, Ospedale Mauriziano, Turin, Italy. 4. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy. 5. Department of Medical, Surgical, and Experimental Sciences, Ophthalmology Unit, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Although acute conjunctivitis has been listed from the beginning as a possible sign of COVID-19, the likelihood of this association remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 and conjunctivitis. METHODS: In this retrospective, observational study, we recruited all patients with signs and symptoms of acute conjunctivitis seen at the Eye Emergency Department (ED), Turin Eye Hospital, between 01/01/2020 and 12/05/2020 and cross-checked our data with the Piedmont Region online COVID-19 registry in the same period. RESULTS: Among 10,065 patients seen at our ED during the timespan considered, 88 underwent a nasopharyngeal swab (NS) for SARS-CoV-2 detection within 4 weeks before/after our examination. On average, NS was performed -0.72 ± 1.8 weeks before/after eye examination. Of the 77 patients with a negative NS, 26 (33.8%) had a diagnosis of acute conjunctivitis, whereas the remaining 51 (66.2%) had other eye disorders. Among the 11 patients with COVID-19, 7 (63,6%) had a diagnosis of acute conjunctivitis. We found a non-statistically significant increase in NS positivity rate (21.2%) among cases examined at our ED for acute conjunctivitis, compared to the NS positivity rate (7.3%) in patients examined for all other eye conditions (p = 0.092). The Odds Ratio of having a positive NS in patients with acute conjunctivitis was 3.43 (95% I.C. = 0.9-12.8, p = 0.06). Considering online-registry data of Turin population during the same time-span, among 2441 positive NS cases only 27 (1.1%) presented with acute conjunctivitis. CONCLUSION: Our results do not reveal a statistically significant correlation between COVID-19 and acute conjunctivitis. SYNOPSIS: The present study analyzes retrospectively data from a tertiary eye referral center to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 infection and conjunctivitis.
PURPOSE: Although acute conjunctivitis has been listed from the beginning as a possible sign of COVID-19, the likelihood of this association remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 and conjunctivitis. METHODS: In this retrospective, observational study, we recruited all patients with signs and symptoms of acute conjunctivitis seen at the Eye Emergency Department (ED), Turin Eye Hospital, between 01/01/2020 and 12/05/2020 and cross-checked our data with the Piedmont Region online COVID-19 registry in the same period. RESULTS: Among 10,065 patients seen at our ED during the timespan considered, 88 underwent a nasopharyngeal swab (NS) for SARS-CoV-2 detection within 4 weeks before/after our examination. On average, NS was performed -0.72 ± 1.8 weeks before/after eye examination. Of the 77 patients with a negative NS, 26 (33.8%) had a diagnosis of acute conjunctivitis, whereas the remaining 51 (66.2%) had other eye disorders. Among the 11 patients with COVID-19, 7 (63,6%) had a diagnosis of acute conjunctivitis. We found a non-statistically significant increase in NS positivity rate (21.2%) among cases examined at our ED for acute conjunctivitis, compared to the NS positivity rate (7.3%) in patients examined for all other eye conditions (p = 0.092). The Odds Ratio of having a positive NS in patients with acute conjunctivitis was 3.43 (95% I.C. = 0.9-12.8, p = 0.06). Considering online-registry data of Turin population during the same time-span, among 2441 positive NS cases only 27 (1.1%) presented with acute conjunctivitis. CONCLUSION: Our results do not reveal a statistically significant correlation between COVID-19 and acute conjunctivitis. SYNOPSIS: The present study analyzes retrospectively data from a tertiary eye referral center to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 infection and conjunctivitis.
Entities:
Keywords:
COVID-19; COVID-19 registry; acute conjunctivitis; eye emergency department
Authors: Timothy P H Lin; Chung-Nga Ko; Ke Zheng; Kenny H W Lai; Raymond L M Wong; Allie Lee; Shaochong Zhang; Suber S Huang; Kelvin H Wan; Dennis S C Lam Journal: Asia Pac J Ophthalmol (Phila) Date: 2021-11-24
Authors: N Venkatesh Prajna; Prajna Lalitha; Gonugunta Vishnu Teja; Rameshkumar Gunasekaran; Sankalp S Sharma; Armin Hinterwirth; Kevin Ruder; Lina Zhong; Cindi Chen; Michael Deiner; ChunHong Huang; Benjamin A Pinsky; Thomas M Lietman; Gerami D Seitzman; Thuy Doan Journal: J Clin Virol Date: 2022-09-27 Impact factor: 14.481