Association between acute corneal hydrops in patients with keratoconus and mitral valve prolapse.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between corneal hydrops in patients with keratoconus (KCN) and mitral valve prolapse (MVP).

METHODS

This case-control study included patients with KCN with corneal hydrops who were referred to Labbafinejad Medical Center or a private clinic between March 2006 and March 2008, as the case group. The control group included group-matched individuals who were selected from patients of the same medical centers without any ophthalmic diseases. The size of the control group was 4 times that of the case group to increase the power of the study. All subjects were referred for cardiac examination and underwent 2-dimensional, M-mode, and color Doppler echocardiography. The criteria of Perloff et al were used for diagnosis of MVP. Fisher exact test and logistic regression analysis were used to compare these 2 groups.

RESULTS

Overall, 160 participants (32 cases and 128 controls) with mean age of 31.0 ± 13.2 years were studied. Prevalence of MVP was 65.6% in the case group and 9% in controls (P < 0.001). Patients with hydrops had an odds ratio of 26.7 for having MVP (95% confidence interval, 9.5-75.2). Age- and sex-adjusted analyses revealed that the odds ratio of MVP in the case group was higher than that in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

There seems to be a correlation between corneal hydrops secondary to KCN and MVP, suggesting further evaluation to assess mitral valve status.