Avaliação da dispersão de luz sobre a retina de pacientes com histórico de hanseníase

Abstract

Leprosy affects the ocular structures e it has the potential to make deficits the image formation on the retina. As the vision has a very important function for the human being, the decrement of the image quality on the retina can get worst the quality of life of the leprosy patients, which already can have somesthesics and motor alterations. This study was performed with leprosy patients in the Edison Lobão city in the Maranhão state from August 2011 and May 2012. The main purpose was to evaluate the straylight in the eye of the leprosy patients. The data was collected using the equipment C-Quant that performs a psychophysical procedure to quantify the straylight in the retina. Questionnaires were used to get clinical history, incapacities, treatment duration and visual complains. It was evaluated 50 eyes from leprosy patients and they were compared to 48 eyes of control subjects. There were no differences between both groups in the comparison of visual acuity. There was statistical difference of the retinal straylight between the control and leprosy patients (one way ANOVA, α = 0.05). There was no difference between the retinal straylight between the clinical forms of leprosy. Twenty seven eyes of the leprosy patients had retinal straylight values above 99% of the retinal straylight distribution of the control group. The retinal straylight values of the control group fitted well to the predictive model to their variation as a function of the age, while the results obtained from leprosy patients had a low fit to that predictive model. The retinal straylight of the leprosy patients were higher in the begging of the treatment (2-6 months) and in cured patients with diagnosis time above to 30 months. Even in normal visual acuity patients, the retinal straylight values could be altered e they can have decreasing of the quality of life across the years. The changes of the retinal straylight showed by leprosy patients must be due alterations in the ocular media or tissues caused by leprosy, or loss of the protective reaction of the eyes due somesthesics losses or even use of drug therapy.