Purpose
To evaluate the effects of therapy with topical corticosteroid and hypo-osmotic artificial tears on the viscoelastic properties of the ocular surface and lacrimal turnover in dry eyes by anterior segment Optical Coherence Tomography (AS-OCT).
Methods
We evaluated the ocular surface of 40 patients with varying severity of dry eyes by AS-OCT. The OCT imaging was enhanced by using two different eye drops containing: a) carboxymethylcellulose 0.5%, glycerol 0.9%, to study the viscoelastic properties of the ocular surface, and b) mineral oil, to analyze the lacrimal turn-over. All patients were assigned to a regimen of fluorometholone (1 drop four times a day) and hypo-osmotic saline drops (1 drop four times a day) for 10 days. The following tests were performed before and after the therapy: McMonnies questionnaire, tear break-up time (TBUT), Schirmer 1, Oxford scheme for grading ocular surface staining, and AS-OCT. All examinations were conducted in the same conditions of temperature, brightness, humidity and time of the day. The paired t-test was used to compare data before and after therapy.
Results
The viscoelastic properties of the tear film, as assessed by AS-OCT, appeared significantly modified after anti-inflammatory therapy: there was a higher adhesion of artificial tears on the ocular surface (p=0.005), and a faster turnover of the tear film (p=0.01).
Conclusions
The OCT is a useful tool to monitor the dynamic changes of the tear film in the dry eye syndrome and to evaluate the benefit of therapy.
Keywords: 486 cornea: tears/tear film/dry eye •
487 corticosteroids •
552 imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound)