Ocular Comorbidity in Atopic Dermatitis

Atopic Dermatitis (AD), a very common inflammatory skin condition of child and adulthood, is strongly associated with ocular disease. Accordingly, about 20% experience conjunctivitis at some point, and many have chronic disease. Atopic keratoconjunctivitis (AKC) is the most feared as it may lead to blindness. Little is known about the etiology, the immune infiltrate, as well as predictive factors of AKC and the clinical characteristics of AD patients who develop this entity. We expect this project to enable clinicians to better identify AKC patients in the future as well as improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of AKC.

The ocular findings will be compared between AD severity and a control group without ocular symptoms.

Inclusion criteria

• Danish talking
• Diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (AD)
• Current or previous ocular symptoms suspected to be atopic keratoconjunctivitis

Exclusion criteria

• No pause in eyedrops
• Ocular infections within the last 3 months
• Use of local or systemic antibiotics within the last 3 months
• Significant untreated systemic disease such as hypertension, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, previous cerebral infarction or bleeding, lung diseases and autoimmune diseases other than atopic dermatitis and related comorbidities. The diseases are accepted if they are well treated or do not require treatment
• Current pregnant or breastfeeding
• Use of contact lenses, unless these are paused 2 weeks before the examination or they are due to keratoconus treatment
• If the eye symptoms turn out not to be related to atopic keratoconjunctivitis
• If it is assessed that the individual cannot participate sufficiently for the examination