STUDY OF PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES IN THE CONJUNCTIVA AND CORNEA USING IMPRESSION CYTOLOGY IN CASES OF PTERYGIUM: A CROSSSECTIONAL STUDY CONDUCTED AT ONE OF THE TERTIARY CARE CENTERS OF NORTHERN INDIA

Abstract

Background: Pterygium is a benign, proliferative, degenerative condition of conjunctiva and sub conjunctival tissue that has the potential to impair vision. Impression cytology is the process of removing the outermost layers of ocular surface epithelium using cellulose acetate filter paper. There are various methods to investigate Pterygium, we carried out this study through impression cytology. This was a cross-sectional study carried out in Materials and Methodology: Career Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow including 100 patients with pterygium. From each eye, 4 impressions were collected through impression cytology, which included 2 conjunctival and 2 corneal impressions to study thecytological changes occurring throughout inter-palpebral ocular surface in the eye with pterygium. The cytology Results: of the surface cells overlying the pterygium exhibits squamous metaplasia, goblet cell hyperplasia, and keratinization of the epithelial cells. These cytological changes are not only seen over pterygium conjunctiva and cornea around the pterygium but they are also seen over the unaffected sites of the interpalpebral conjunctiva and cornea in the same eye. Conclusion: Pterygium is a graded series of the ocular surface variations occurring through out the inter-palpebral bulbar conjunctiva and cornea, with most advanced variation shappening directly over pterygium surface, confirming that pterygium is certainly anocular surface disorder. This study suggests that impression cytology represents a fast,cost-effective,and non-invasive tool for understanding the pathology of pterygium.