Clinical profile of dry eye disease at the Philippine General Hospital

ABSTRACT

Objectives@#To describe the population of dry eye disease (DED) patients seen at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Dry Eye Clinic, and to compare the diagnosis, type, and severity of DED using Oculus Keratograph® 5M (Oculus GmbH, Wetzlar, Germany) with clinical diagnosis.@*Methodology@#This was a single-center comparative, cross-sectional study. Newly-diagnosed DED patients were recruited for the dry eye group. A subset of healthy volunteers without DED was also recruited for the control group. The clinical data for both groups were collected, and the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire was administered. Standard clinical dry eye testing and Keratograph testing were subsequently done. The PGH Dry Eye Clinic definitions were used to classify the types of dry eye. @*Results@#Eighty (80) eyes of 40 patients per group were examined. For the dry eye group, the mean age and OSDI scores were significantly higher, while the average tear break up time (TBUT) was significantly lower. There was no significant difference in average basal secretion test (BST) and Schirmer 1 measurements between the two groups. 73% had evaporative type dry eye, while 27% had mixed type. Majority of the DED patients were females of >50 years old with mild evaporative type. Foreign body sensation was the most common symptom. Overall, there was poor agreement between clinical and Keratograph assessments of diagnosis and severity among patients in the dry eye group, but there was acceptable agreement when assessment was done in the control group.@*Conclusions@#DED patients at the PGH have similar characteristics to reported DED of other Asian populations. Evaporative or short TBUT type dry eye is the most frequently seen. Further formal validity study is needed for Oculus Keratograph® 5M to increase the value of its data to be included in routine dry eye screening.