Ocular surface Rose Bengal staining in normal dogs and dogs with Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca: Preliminary findings

Williams Dl

doi:10.29328/journal.hvsr.1001005

Abstract

Ocular surface Rose Bengal staining in normal dogs and dogs with Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca: Preliminary findings

Highlights

Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) or dry eye in the dog is a common uncomfortable and potentially blinding condition [1] most frequently diagnosed by use of the Schirmer tear test (STT), irst developed by Otto Schirmer for quanti ication of tear production in people in 1903 [2] and modi ied for use in the dog by Gelatt in 1975 [3]
In human patients the STT is considered a less valuable test and a panoply of other diagnostic methods are used from quanti ication of tear ilm breakup time through measurement of tear ilm osmolarity to evaluation of ocular surface pathology through use of vital dye staining using Rose Bengal or Lissamine Green stains
Having said that the ocular pathology seen in canine dry eye may not perfectly correlate with tear wetting of the Schirmer tear test strip and other diagnostic tests may be valuable in addition to the STT

Summary

Introduction

Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) or dry eye in the dog is a common uncomfortable and potentially blinding condition [1] most frequently diagnosed by use of the Schirmer tear test (STT), irst developed by Otto Schirmer for quanti ication of tear production in people in 1903 [2] and modi ied for use in the dog by Gelatt in 1975 [3]. In 1933 Sjogren described the staining pattern observed in patients with KCS and he speculated that the dye was staining normal but desquamated corneal epithelial squames [4]. Passmore continued this theory in his 1955 review [5] and it was not until Norn’s work in the 1960s that the view changed to consider that Rose Bengal was staining dead and degenerate epithelial cells [6,7,8]. Twenty years later Scheffer Tseng discovered that the dye stained a range of healthy cells in culture, leading him to ask whether healthy corneal cells were stained and if so, why healthy cornea was not stained. We present preliminary indings on Rose Bengal staining of the ocular surface of dogs with normal tear production and eyes with aqueous tear ilm de iciency

Methods

Results

Conclusion