Abstract
Purpose: :
To investigate the relationships between dynamic optical quality of the eye and patient-reported vision-related quality of life in dry eye disease.
Methods: :
Forty patients diagnosed for low- to moderate-severity dry eye underwent clinical examination (tear film break-up time [TBUT], Schirmer's test, corneal and conjunctival stainings, and blepharitis scoring)and corneal/ocular higher-order aberration (HOA) recording (1 measurement/s during 10 s after blinking) using KR-1 aberrometer (Topcon, Clichy, France). Vision-related quality of life was assessed using the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire. Multivariate analysis combined with stepwise regression procedure was performed to determine correlations between the data.
Results: :
Significant progression of corneal HOAs was found (repeated-measure one-way ANOVA, P<0.01 from 4 s to 10 s after blinking)together with degradation in Point Spread Function and three-dimensional Modulation Transfer Function, mainly due to an increase with time in 3rd-order aberrations. The progression index for HOAs was correlated with clinical objective findings of TBUT and ocular surface damage (P<0.01 for each) as well as with subjective OSDI score (P<0.05).
Conclusions: :
Targeted analysis of the time-course of HOAs and related optical properties of the eye could become an objective and reliable tool to evaluate and follow the disease severity in dry eye.
Keywords: cornea: tears/tear film/dry eye • aberrations • quality of life