Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT1058

Introduction: Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) is an autoimmune manifestation of Graves’ disease (GD) affecting the orbit and the periorbital tissues. Among its other manifestations, an important percentage of patients experience symptoms of Dry eye disease (DED). The aim of this study was to investigate a possible association between DED and clinical, demographic, and imaging parameters of GO.

Material and Methods: This is a single-center observational study in an outpatient clinic of autoimmune endocrinopathies at a Tertiary, General, University Hospital between 09.2022-12.2024. Sixty-seven patients with GO were included in the study. We evaluated GO activity and severity parameters, functional and psychological well-being scores as assessed by the EUGOGO- GO Quality of Life Questionnaire, TSI levels. All patients underwent orbital MRI. Tear secretion was measured in all patients by applying a Schirmer test strip. Depending on the measured value, patients were divided into 4 subgroups: normal tear secretion (>15 mm), mild dry eye (10- 15 mm), moderate dry eye (5- 10 mm) and severe dry eye (< 5 mm). Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26 and statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.

Results: Mean age was 52.34 ± 12.04 years (range 30–85 years) and 79.1% were females. We found that tear dysfunction severity was significantly associated with eye muscle involvement in MRI (P = 0.005), which was evident in all patients in the severe dry eye subgroup. IV contrast enhancement in MRI, indicative of active inflammation, was also positively correlated with dry eye severity (P = 0.037). Moreover, dysthyroid optic neuropathy (DON) was significantly associated with Schirmer categories (P = 0.029), with DON present in 25% of severe cases and 16.7% of moderate cases. Patients with moderate DED were older (mean = 59.37 ± 11.51 years) compared to those with normal tear function (mean = 46.38 ± 9.71 years, P = 0.003). Functional well-being scores were lower in severe dry eye cases (mean = 13.08 ± 3.25) compared to moderate cases (mean = 17.78 ± 4.78, P = 0.039).

Conclusion: In our study, we showed that there is a significant association between DED severity and older age, evident orbital MRI findings, DON and lower quality of life scores among patients with GO. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm a possible correlation between DED severity and GO parameters, such as disease activity and TSI levels.