Abstract
Purpose :
Patients with dry eye disease experience greater tear film instability and more rapid rates of tear film break-up post blinks. The Ora EyeCup Phone is able to measure tear film stability utilizing the Ocular Protection Index (OPI) scale. OPI not only looks at the time for the tear film to break up but also allows the assessment of the break up area.
Methods :
We tested 15 patients (12 female; mean age 62 yo) with a reported history of dry eye disease and a tear film break up time less than 5 seconds. Fluorescein was instilled via micropipette in both eyes 3 minutes prior to video recording. The EyeCup was fitted with led lights to activate the fluorescein and a filter was placed in front of the camera. Patients were instructed to hold their gaze on a crosshair positioned straight ahead of the subject while a 1-minute 4k 60 frames per second video on each eye was recorded using the google Pixel 5. Patients were asked to blink normally while the video was acquired to provide a natural interblink interval (IBI) and tear film break up time (TFBUT). Videos were processed using a custom semi-automated algorithm previously described.
Results :
Video acquisition with the Ora EyeCup Phone was successful in all patients and took five minutes or less from instruction to successful recording of both eyes. Video quality was similar to videos previously measured using a DSLR camera in a slit lamp exam. In all patients the OPI was below 1, indicating they had an unprotected ocular surface. The average OPI was 0.090 (standard deviation 0.027).
Conclusions :
This study demonstrated the feasibility of performing real-time, home-based assessment of tear film stability and ocular surface protection using a novel technology. This proof-of-concept study suggests the usefulness of this technology in clinical trials investigating the effect of different treatment modalities for dry eye disease outside the laboratory setting.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.