Filamentary keratitis is often associated with various systemic and other ocular conditions. A recent study in the American Journal of Ophthalmology also found the most common underlying condition associated with filamentary keratitis was a brain lesion followed by dry eye disease (DED).

The team of Korean researchers conducted a retrospective review of the medical records of 116 patients with filamentary keratitis diagnosed and treated between 2012 and 2018. The study looked at five causative factors: brain lesion, DED, autoimmune disease, ocular surgery or injury or “other,” in addition to treatment methods and duration and remission status. The investigators also analyzed the risk factors associated with remission.

Patients were approximately 57 years old and were re-examined at about 15 months.

The study identified the most common underlying condition associated with filamentary keratitis was brain lesion (36.2%), followed by DED (30.2%) and autoimmune disease (24.1%). Looking at remission rates among the causative factors, cases associated with brain lesions had significantly lower remission rates (33.3%) compared with the “other” category (greater than 60%).

After adjusting for sex, age, diabetes and hypertension, the treatment failure rate in patients affected by brain lesions was more than six-fold higher compared with the treatment failure rate in individuals without brain lesions. Additionally, the study noted the treatment method-dependent differences in the remission rate were observed in brain lesion and DED.