In July of 2010, a study was conducted by researchers Hirakawa, Yanoshita, Yoshii and Yano from Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company in Tokyo and published in the Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. The study focused on the use of cooling sheets on eye itching associated with allergic conjunctivitis. The cool sheets should give a soothing effect to alleviate itchiness, while producing a small extent of vasoconstriction in the blood vessels lining the conjunctiva. This would ideally decrease the infiltration of fluid and white blood cells into the conjunctiva, reducing swelling.
The researchers used six subjects with allergic conjunctivitis, which served as the experimental group. The control group consisted of four subjects without allergies. Using a five-level itching score, researchers measured the severity of itching. They also measured the concentration of histamine in the subjects' tears; remember that there is an increased release of histamine during an allergic reaction.
The researchers measured the severity of itching and the concentration of tear histamine before cooling the eyelids. After five minutes of cooling the subjects' eyelids, an itching score and tear histamine concentration was obtained. The results showed a lower itching score and improvement in itchiness, when the cooling sheet was used. However, the cooling sheet had no effect on histamine concentration in the tears.
The researchers did discover that combining Livostin (Levocabastine Hydrochloride) with the cooling sheets, effectively decreased histamine concentration in the tears and eye itchiness. It would be safe to say that the cooling sheets are more of a supplemental therapy to use in conjunction with more reliable and effective pharmacological treatments. However, cooling sheets are an easy way to relieve the itchiness associated with allergic conjunctivitis and may be an easy-to-apply therapy for the pediatric population.
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