Abstract
Purpose:
Dry eye-related conjunctival epithelial damage is thought to be associated with pre-conjunctival tear film instability and blink-related friction, and tear deficiency is thought to enhance the mechanisms of both of those factors. The purpose of this present study was to investigate the correlation between tear deficiency and conjunctival epithelial damage.
Methods:
This study involved 76 eyes of 76 dry eye patients (mean age: 62.2 years). The patients were divided into the following 2 groups in relation to their Schirmer Ι test (ST1) values: 1) patients with an ST1 value of ≦5mm (Group A, 28 eyes of 28 patients) and 2) patients with an ST1 value of ≧6mm (Group B, 48 eyes of 48 patients). Between the 2 groups, the scores for bulbar conjunctival epithelial damage, palpebral conjunctival epithelial damage, and lid-wiper epitheliopathy (LWE) were then compared.
Results:
Comparison between the 2 groups revealed significantly greater (p<0.02) scores in Group A than in Group B at the nasal region (Group A 1.6±1.1, Group B: 0.5±0.8), temporal region (Group A: 1.4±1.2, Group B: 0.5±0.9), and their total (Group A: 3.0±2.3, Group B: 1.0±1.6). In contrast, the palpebral conjunctival epithelial damage was minimal, and was only observed in 3 cases of Group A. LWE scores were significantly greater (p<0.009) in Group A than in Group B at the upper (Group A: 0.9±1.0, Group B: 0.3±0.6), lower (Group A: 0.9±1.0, Group B: 0.3±0.5) and their total (Group A: 1.7±2.0, Group A: 0.5±0.9).
Conclusions:
The findings of this present study suggest that bulbar conjunctival epithelial damage and LWE scores increase in relation to the tear deficiency.
Keywords: 486 cornea: tears/tear film/dry eye