Thursday, September 10, 2009

Abstract: Oral uridine and dry eye

I wasn't familiar with this drug but after googling it... I'd really like to know what dosage was used for this study. (Most of the hits are for psychiatric uses of the drug.)

Preliminary effects of oral uridine on the ocular surface in dry eye patients.
J Korean Med Sci. 2009 Aug;24(4):701-7. Epub 2009 Jul 30.
Chang KC, Oh JY, In YS, Kim MK, Shin KC, Wee WR, Lee JH, Park MG.
Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

We designed a randomized, double blinded, 3-months controlled prospective clinical study to investigate effects of oral uridine on the ocular surface in dry eye patients. Twenty-seven patients who diagnosed as dry eye with lower than 5 mm of wetting in the Schirmer strip, with corneal epithelial erosion and who completely followed-up till 3 months were enrolled. Corneal-conjunctival fluorescein staining, non-anesthetic Schirmer test, impression cytology, and Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) were evaluated in the experimental and placebo groups at the baseline, 1 and 3 months after start of medication in a double blinded manner. Fluorescein stain score of the cornea was markedly decreased in oral uridine group compared to the placebo group at 3 months after medication (P=0.032, Mann-Whitney U test). The Schirmer wetting score for the oral uridine group was significantly increased (P=0.001, Wilcoxon signed rank test) at 3 months and its difference between two groups was statistically significant (P=0.030, Mann-Whitney U test). OSDI scores were significantly decreased at 1 and 3 months in treatment group. Oral uridine is effective in treatment of dry eyes.

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