Eosinophil cationic protein as a marker for assessing the efficacy of tacrolimus ophthalmic solution in the treatment of atopic keratoconjunctivitis

[摘要] Purpose: To examine the clinicalefficacy and anti–inflammatory effects of tacrolimus eye drops; westudied the changes in clinical ocular findings and measured teareosinophil cationic protein (ECP) levels of atopic keratoconjunctivitis(AKC) patients before and after the treatment. Methods: Nine eyes of 9 patients (8males, 1 female; mean age: 16.9±11.4 years; range: 6–44 years)diagnosed with moderate or severe AKC disease were enrolled in thisprospective study and treated with tacrolimus. All patients received0.1% tacrolimus eye drops 2 times a day for 1 month. Tear samples weretaken before and after treatment and ECP concentrations were obtained.Corneal fluorescein staining and conjunctival injection, edema, andpapillary formation were graded on the recruitment day and one monthlater. Analysis of pre- and post-treatment findings was done using theWilcoxon signed test. The ECP concentrations were correlated with theclinical signs using Spearman correlation tests. Results: Post-treatment tear ECP levelswere significantly reduced compared to the pre-treatment level.Clinical corneal scores also improved significantly after one monthtreatment with tacrolimus eye-drops. The mean conjunctival injectionand conjunctival edema scores were significantly (p<0.05) decreasedafter the drug therapy. Strong positive linear correlations between ECPvalues and clinical signs were observed. Patients did not present sideeffects during the treatment with tacrolimus. Conclusions: In this pilot study,tacrolimus eye drops were found to reduce signs of AKC. ECP proved tocorrelate well with clinical signs of AKC.

[学科分类] 生物化学/生物物理