Corneal punctate staining with latanoprost, bimatoprost, and travoprost in healthy subjects.

Purpose: To evaluate short-term conjunctival and corneal punctate staining with latanoprost, bimatoprost, and travoprost in healthy individuals.

Materials And Methods: A single centered, active-controlled, three-period crossover comparison that evaluated conjunctival and corneal punctate staining, by grade and individual stains, in healthy subjects after dosing for five days in one eye with latanoprost, bimatoprost, or travoprost. Staining was evaluated at 24-hour trough (Hour 0) and at Hour 1 after dosing.

Results: Twenty-eight subjects completed this study. This study found that there was no significant difference by ANOVA for the number of individual corneal punctate stains either at trough (latanoprost 22.6 +/- 25.4, bimatoprost 16.8 +/- 25.6, and travoprost 21.1 +/- 26.0 mm Hg) (P = 0.33) or at 1 hour after dosing (latanoprost 23.8 +/- 26.3 bimatoprost 18.2 +/- 25.2, and travoprost 26.1 +/- 26.1 mm Hg) (P = 0.75) among treatment groups. No significant differences existed among treatment groups in the study eye compared with the non-study eye or to the study eye at Hour 0 or Hour 1 or to the period initiation or baseline visits (P > 0.05). Several significantly different comparisons, inconsistent in nature, were observed for the nasal and temporal conjunctival staining between the treatment groups. There were no differences in unsolicited or solicited adverse events between groups.

Conclusion: This study suggests that, in healthy subjects after short-term treatment, latanoprost, bimatoprost, and travoprost demonstrate generally similar ocular surface epithelial staining characteristics.