Corticosteroid Induced Ocular Hypertension in Feline Model and Its Effects on White Blood Cell Count

Prolong topical or systemic administration of corticosteroid produces undesirable side effects like increase intraocular pressure, lens opacities, neutrophilia, eosinopenia. This study was aimed at finding out the relationship between ocular hypertension and differential white blood cell count using corticosteroid induced ocular hypertension in feline model. A total of 5 cats were used for this study. The five cats were grouped into two (control and experimental). The control consisted of one cat while the experimental group consisted of four cats. The control group was left untreated while the experimental group was treated with topical 0.1% dexamethasone (steroid) 3-4 times daily. Blood samples were collected and analyzed before and after steroid instillation. At the end of the 4th week, the experimental group developed induced ocular hypertension with percentage increase of 83.5% from baseline IOP. Total WBC and neutrophil increased by 61.3% and 30.4% respectively, while lymphocyte and eosinophils decreased by76.2% and 20% respectively. This shows that there is a strong positive correlation between induced ocular hypertension, total blood cell and neutrophil count while there is negative correlation between induced ocular hypertension, lymphocyte and eosinophil count.