Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the association of the strip meniscometry (SM) tear meniscus volume measurement with dry eye-related signs and symptoms in over 2000 sample case series.
Methods :
This cross-sectional study enrolled 2234 consecutive outpatients and we used dry eye symptomatology and related ocular surface examinations including the Schirmer Test (ST), fluorescein tear film break-up time (BUT), corneal fluorescein vital staining (FLUO), and SM. The cut-off of SM was estimated using ROC analysis. The subjective symptoms consisted of binarized seven items: dryness, fatigue, photophobia, pain, irritation, blurring, and lacrimation. The clinical signs were also binarized by the cut-off in each test. The entire presence of signs and symptoms were then analyzed using Hayashi’s quantification theory type III to depict their mutual similarities.
Results :
The mean age of subjects was 59.3 ±17.3 yrs. The mean values were 13.6 ± 9.6 mm for ST, 3.1 ± 2.1 s for BUT, 0.40 ± 0.66 for FLUO, and 2.4 ± 2.7 mm for SM. ST had a weak negative correlation with age (r = –0.152, p<0.01), whereas BUT and SM did not. All pairs among ST, BUT and SM had significant correlations; the highest value was found in the BUT-SM pair (r = 0.238, p<0.01). On the basis of the large-scale sample size (n = 1162), a cut-off length of SM was newly suggested as 2.5 mm (AUC = 0.618) in reference to former 4.5 mm. The quantification type III analysis elucidated the high similarity among the presence of signs by SM, BUT and FLUO, while that by ST appeared to be isolated from the other signs. Three symptoms (pain, irritation and dryness) had a distinct similarity.
Conclusions :
SM results with the cut-off = 2.5 mm could be a useful clinical indicator for initial screening of dry eye.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.