title: Prevalence of superficial fibrillary lines of the cornea in contact lens wearers and nonwearers.
abstract: Superficial corneal epithelial striations described as fibrillary lines have been documented as a common finding in normal and keratoconic eyes. We first noticed these fine white structures in both soft and rigid contact lens wearers. This prompted us to investigate whether the prevalence of these lines was greater in contact lens wearers than in non-lens wearers. Our results indicated that although the lines were more frequently observed in lens wearers (35.7% of 42 patients) than in the controls (19.0% of 42 patients), the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.0867, chi 2 analysis). We speculate that lens wear makes fibrillary lines more visible but is not responsible for their presence.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Contact Lens Research, School of Optometry, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fonn
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gauthier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003261:Contact Lenses; D003263:Contact Lenses, Hydrophilic; D003315:Cornea / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D004848:Epithelium / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011897:Random Allocation