A Study to Determine the Effects of Air Pollution on Conjunctival Tissue using Scraping and Impression Cytology

To study the effect of outdoor air pollution on conjunctival and sub-conjunctival tissues by cytological methods like Scraping Cytology and Conjunctival Impression Cytology.

One hundred patients (200 eyes in total) were included in the study. The study was conducted on two groups, consisting of 50 subjects (100eyes each) The study group (group 1) comprised people who commuted daily via highly polluted areas for at least two years.

Control group (group 2) comprised people who were not commuting long distances on a daily basis.

Effects of Air pollution were determined using Scraping Cytology and Conjunctival Cytology.

No subject showed advanced keratinization, the highest grade of metaplasia found was 3. The distribution of metaplastic changes in group I was significantly higher than in group II.

Longer duration of exposure also causes metaplastic changes in the conjunctival epithelium, which are seen easily on conjunctival impression cytology (CIC) preparations. Also inflammatory changes in scraping appear earlier than metaplastic changes, though changes in CIC are more specific.