Abstract
Purpose: :
After the dry eye treatment such as punctal plug insertion, the subjects’ eyes seem to be sparkling. To confirm this observation, we compared the intensity of corneal light reflex from the eye before and after punctal plug insertion in dry eye patients with Sjogren syndrome (SS).
Methods: :
15 eyes of 8 SS dry eye patients (8 females, 63.5 ± 12.1 y/o) were participated. Schirmer test value was 1.7 ± 1.1mm. The corneal light reflex was quantitatively measured as follows; Slit–lamp in fixed light source intensity with a 45° angle of incidence was used. A digital image filing system with CCD camera was used to record the corneal reflex. The gain and the iris aperture of CCD camera were also fixed. The intensity from images of corneal reflex was quantified with image analysis software (ImagePro, mediacybernetics, Silver Spring, MD).
Results: :
Before punctal plug insertion, intensity of corneal reflex from SS subjects was 125 ± 40. After the treatment, Schirmer test value increased to 6.1 ± 4.0 mm. The corneal reflex increased significantly to 167 ± 45 (P < 0.0001, Wilcoxon matched–pairs signed–ranks test).
Conclusions: :
After dry eye treatment using punctal plug, corneal light reflex was increased. Such a dry eye treatment may contribute not only to the improvement of ocular surface epithelial damages but also to the increase of corneal reflex leading to the sparkling of the eye.
Keywords: cornea: tears/tear film/dry eye