Christina JOHN, Sherin B. SARANGOM, Pallvi SHARMA, Chelladurai SOWBHARENYA, Aswathy GOPINATHAN, Kiranjeet SINGH

Clinical evaluation of topical tacrolimus ointment usage in different stages of keratoconjunctivitis sicca in dogs

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of topical tacrolimus (0.1%) ointment in stimulating tear production indogs with keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS). Thirty-six dogs (58 eyes) diagnosed with KCS were included in this study. KCS was groupedas early (E, n = 21 eyes), late (L, n = 21 eyes), and reflex tear due to corneal ulceration (R, n = 16 eyes) based on Schirmer tear test(STT) readings. The dogs in each group were randomly allotted treatment with either tacrolimus 0.1% ointment applied once daily(ET, n = 11 eyes; LT, n = 10 eyes; RT, n = 6 eyes) or cyclosporine (CsA) 0.05% eye drops instilled five times daily (EC, n = 10 eyes;LC, n = 11 eyes; RC, n = 10 eyes) for 2 months. The efficacy of the treatments was evaluated and comparison was made based oncomplete ophthalmic examination and a scoring system for various parameters like menace reflex, palpebral reflex, pupillary lightreflex, conjunctival hyperemia, ocular discharge, corneal clarity, corneal ulceration, corneal vessel length, corneal vessel density, cornealpigmentation area, corneal pigmentation density, STT readings, fluorescein dye test, and Rose Bengal dye test. The effect of treatmentwas evaluated on day 15, 30, and 60 after treatments. Good quality digital photographs from a fixed distance were taken at each intervalto aid subjective evaluation. Data were analyzed using one-way and repeated-measures ANOVA followed by Tukey’s HSD test, Wilcoxonsigned rank test, and Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s test to identify significant interactions. The level of significance was setto P < 0.05. Improvement in menace reflex and pupillary light reflex was observed in both treatment groups. Conjunctival hyperemiaand ocular discharge decreased significantly after treatment with both of the drugs. There was no significant difference in improvementin tear production between treatment groups but tacrolimus 0.1% ointment significantly arrested the progression of pigments. Thestudy concluded that both tacrolimus 0.1% ointment and CsA 0.05% eye drops improve tear production in KCS-affected dogs. Topicaltacrolimus 0.1% ointment effectively arrests the progression of pigmentation compared to CsA 0.05% eye drops in KCS-affected dogs.

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