Scar sarcoidosis with systemic involvement after blepharoplasty

AIM: To explore the ocular features of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 detection in tears and conjunctival scrapes in non-severe COVID-19 patients. METHODS: This is a multicenter observational clinical study with no intervention conducted from Jan 28th to March 1st 2020. Clinical data and samples of tears and conjunctival scraping were collected in consecutive laboratory-confirmed, non-severe COVID-19 patients from three hospitals. COVID-19 virus was analyzed by real-time RT-PCR kits. RESULTS: Totally 255 laboratory-confirmed, non-severe COVID-19 patients were recruited for ocular manifestation investigation. Of them, 54.9% were females, with a median age of 49.4y. None of the patients has evidence of uveitis, 11 patients (4.3%) complained of mild asthenopia, 2 (0.8%) had mild conjunctival congestion and serous secretion. Twenty-five of them had performed tears and conjunctival scrape for COVID-19 virus detection, with 4 yield possible positive results in the N gene. One of them were asymptomatic with normal chest CT and positive pharyngeal swab result. CONCLUSION: Ocular manifestations are neither common nor specific in non-severe COVID-19 patients. Meanwhile, COVID-19 virus nucleotides can be detected in the tears and conjunctival scrape samples, warranting further research on the transmissibility by the ocular route.