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

PURPOSE: 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.