Correlation between measurement of tear meniscus by anterior segment module of OCT with dry eye signs and symptoms / 中华实验眼科杂志

ABSTRACT

Background Dry eye is the most common ocular surface disease.Anterior segment pattern of optical coherent tomography (OCT) is able to be used to assess the tear meniscus directly and accurately.Objective This study was to evaluate the correlation between measuring outcomes of tear meniscus by anterior segment module of OCT with signs and symptoms of dry eye.Methods A retrospective serial cases-observational study was designed.Thirty-six patients who completed Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and got a score more than 20 were enrolled in the First Hospital of Peking University from September to October,2010 under the informed consent.The upper and lower tear meniscus height (U/LTMH,μm),depth (U/LTMD,μm) and cross sectional area (U/LMA,mm2) were measured with the anterior segment module of OCT (RTVue.pitch).A series of clinical tests were performed,including tear film interferometry,break-up time (BUT),fluorescein corneal staining,lissamine green conjunctival staining and Schirmer Ⅰ test (S Ⅰ t).The correlations of measuring outcomes of tear meniscus by anterior segment module of OCT with dry eye-related examinations were analyzed with Spearman correlation coefficients.Results The values of UTMH,UTMD,UMA were (232±56) μm,(156±53) μm,(0.021 ±0.008) mm2,respectively,and the values of LTMH,LTMD,LMA were (222 ± 72) μm,(163 ± 65) μm,(0.020 ± 0.006) mm2,respectively.No significant differences were found in the measuring values between the upper and the lower tear meniscus (all at P＞0.05).The quantitative values of tear meniscus were not significantly correlated with the OSDI scores or tear film interferometry grade.Significant correlations were seen between UTMH,UTMD,UMA and BUT (r=0.46,P=0.01 ;r=0.40,P=0.02;r=0.43,P=0.01).LTMH,LTMD,LMA were positively correlated with BUT (r=0.61,P=0.00;r=0.64,P=0.00;r=0.64,P=0.00) and S Ⅰ t (r=0.54,P=0.02 ;r=0.46,P=0.01;r=0.55,P=0.01) as well as negatively correlated with fluorescein cornealstaining (r=-0.37,P=0.04;r=-0.37,P=0.04;r=-0.41,P =0.05) and lissamine green conjunctival staining (r =-0.56,P =0.01 ; r =-0.37,P =0.04 ; r =-0.47,P =0.00).Conclusions Anterior segment module of OCT is an effective approach to the measurement of tear meniscus.The measuring outcomes of anterior segment of OCT are associated with dry eye-related signs.