The use of a particular contact lens solution manufactured by Advanced Medical Optics has a strong association with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare severe eye infection, according to a recent study at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). AK (acanthamoeba keratatis) is a severe, painful infection of the cornea that commonly causes corneal scarring and sometimes blindness.
In the last three and half years, UIC has seen 63 cases of the infections, compared to the two or three cases a year we would normally expect to see. In their study, researchers compared 38 AK patients with 100 controls, all of whom were UIC clinic patients between 2003 and 2006. All participants were asked to fill out a survey.
Survey questions focused on the six-month period prior to symptoms and targeted three areas: water exposure; contact lens hygiene, including solutions and lens types; and other habits associated with contact lens use. Participants were provided with color images of the contact lens solution bottles to help them recall what type they had used.
Among soft contact lens wearers, participants with AK were significantly more likely to report having exclusively used AMO Complete MoisturePlus than the control group (55.2 percent vs. 10.5 percent).
The results correlated with previously published laboratory studies that showed that Acanthamoeba is largely resistant to contact lens solutions in general and to Complete MoisturePlus in particular.
source: http://www.news-medical.net/?id=26461
