Evaluation of Pupillometric Parameters in Patients with COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To investigate the pupillary diameter and pupillary light response in patients who have recovered from the COVID-19.

Methods

Thirty two eyes of 32 patients with a history of COVID-19 in the last two months and 32 eyes of 32 age and sex-matched healthy controls were included in this prospective study. All patients had neurological symptoms. Dynamic and static pupillometry measurements were performed with the Sirius (CSO, Italy) corneal topography device.

Results

Patients with COVID-19 had higher mean scotopic, mesopic, and photopic pupil diameters compared to the controls (p = .01, p = .04, p = .02, respectively). In dynamic pupillometry analysis, 0^th, 2^th, 8^th and 16^th second pupil diameter measurements were higher in COVID-19 patients (p = .02, p = .04, p = .04, p = .04, respectively). There were no differences in the average speed of pupillary dilatation (p > .05).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that the pupillary response, an indicator of autonomic nervous system activity, may be affected in COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms.

KEYWORDS:

• Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
• autonomic dysfunction
• static pupillometry
• dynamic pupillometry

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.