Both Subjective Emotional Distress and Visual Handicap Correlate with Belin ABCD Classification in the Worse Eye as Measured with the “Keratoconus End-Points Assessment Questionnaire” (KEPAQ)

Kepa Balparda,^1,2 Tatiana Herrera-Chalarca,³ Laura Andrea Silva-Quintero,⁴ Sneider Alexander Torres-Soto,⁴ Laura Segura-Muñoz,⁵ Claudia Marcela Vanegas-Ramirez<sup>6

1</sup>Department of Cornea and Refractive Surgery, Black Mammoth Surgical, Medellín, Colombia; ²Predoctoral Research Group, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain; ³Department of Clinical Research, Black Mammoth Surgical, Medellín, Colombia; ⁴Medicarte, Medellín, Colombia; ⁵School of Medicine, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín, Colombia; ⁶Department of Ophthalmology, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín, Colombia

Correspondence: Kepa Balparda Email kb@kepabalparda.com

Background: Keratoconus is a disease characterized by progressive corneal distortion and quality of vision. So far, no study using disease-specific scales has evaluated whether different stages of the disease correlate with higher quality of life (QoL) compromise.
Methods: A total of 114 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Keratoconus were included in this retrospective study. All patients underwent a clinical and a Pentacam evaluation. They were also administered the “Keratoconus End-Points Assessment Questionnaire” (KEPAQ). Belin ABCD criteria were used for Keratoconus classification. “Better eye” was defined as the eye with the lowest maximum keratometry value. Spearman Rank Order Correlation was used to determine the correlation between the different Belin criteria and the KEPAQ scores in both subscales.
Results: Mean age was 28.13 ± 11.57 years, with 39.47% of patients being male. Mean score for the KEPAQ-E was 2.33 ± 3.40 Logit, while for the KEPAQ-F, it was 1.85 ± 3.61 Logit. Criteria A (anterior elevation), B (posterior elevation) and D (visual acuity) in the worse eye correlated significantly with a greater decrease in QoL (p < 0.05 for all correlations). No correlation could be found regarding the better eye.
Conclusion: A greater corneal distortion in the worse eye, as determined by Belin ABCD, is associated with a greater decrease in patient’s QoL. Surgical improvement of the worse eye should probably be performed before surgery of the better eye, as it may provide a better response regarding the quality of life improvement.

Keywords: Keratoconus, quality of life, vision ocular