title: [Prevalence of dry eye in Hansen's disease patients from a colony hospital in Goiânia, Brazil].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of dry eye in Hansen's disease patients from the "Hospital de Dermatologia Sanitária de Goiânia".
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample of the present study included 70 patients with Hansen's disease, from the "Hospital de Dermatologia Sanitária de Goiânia", and 30 controls, from the "Fundação Banco de Olhos de Goiás", both located in Goiânia-GO, Brazil. Ophthalmologic examination and Schirmer I, break-up time (BUT) and rose Bengal staining tests were carried out for all patients in a single evaluation. For the diagnosis of dry eye the Schirmer I equal or less than 5 mm and rose Bengal grade II or III, in at least one eye were considered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-four (63.0%) patients with Hansen's disease were male and 22 (73.3%) controls were female (p=0.001). The mean age of the patients with Hansen's disease was 61.1+/-12.5 years and in the control group, it was 55.7+/-9.6 years. Fifteen (21.4%) patients with Hansen's disease and four (13.3%) controls presented with dry eye diagnosis (p=0.429). The lepromatous type (74.2%) of Hansen's disease was the most prevalent and dry eye (66.7%) was more frequent in this clinical form of the disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The dry eye disease was more prevalent in patients with Hansen's disease, although the difference was not statistically significant.
authors.affiliation: Hospital de Dermatologia Sanitária de Goiânia, GO. kacaf@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Karys Carvalho
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Frazão
authors.forename: Naira Bernardes
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Picolo
authors.forename: Rosana Zacarias
authors.initials: RZ
authors.lastname: Hanouche
authors.forename: Procópio Miguel dos
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Regina Cândido Ribeiro dos
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Santos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D007918:Leprosy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012395:Rose Bengal; D012737:Sex Factors; D013666:Tears / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D012395:Rose Bengal