Abstract
Purpose. To study ocular surface temperature (OST) in dry eyes by static and dynamic measures. Methods. OST was recorded on 62 dry eyes and 63 age- and sex-matched controls. Static measures were study of absolute OST at t = 0, 5, and 10 s after eye opening. Dynamic measures were study of mean change and net change in OST over 10 s of sustained eye opening. Ten OST indices studied were temperatures of the geometric center of the cornea (GCC), extreme temporal (T1) and nasal conjunctiva (T4), midtemporal (CT) and nasal conjunctiva (CN), temporal (LT) and nasal (LN) limbus, and mean (MOST), maximum (Max T), and minimum (Min T) temperatures of the region of interest. Results. For static measures, dry eyes recorded significantly lower GCC, MOST, Min T, Max T, T4, CT, LT, LN, and CN. For dynamic measures, dry eyes had significantly steeper regression line of mean change (corresponding to greater net change) for Max T 5 s onward and T4 at 3 s onward. Conclusions. Both static and dynamic measures of the OST were valuable and can be used as clinical tool to assess dry eye.
Highlights
Dry eye disease (DED) is multifactorial and can be caused by poor quality tear film and inflammation of the eyelid/ocular surface [1] resulting from a lower tear production rate and/or a tear instability
Capturing ocular surface temperature (OST) changes using IR ocular thermography reflects the nature of the tear film and its stability [8,9,10] and has been used to study DED since 1993 [3]
The research protocol was approved by the Singapore National Health Group (NHG) Domain-Specific Review Board (DSRB) and the Singapore Polytechnic ethics review committee and the work adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki
Summary
Dry eye disease (DED) is multifactorial and can be caused by poor quality tear film and inflammation of the eyelid/ocular surface [1] resulting from a lower tear production rate and/or a tear instability. Capturing OST changes using IR ocular thermography reflects the nature of the tear film and its stability [8,9,10] and has been used to study DED since 1993 [3]. Morgan and his associates [3] investigated the temperature difference between limbus and central cornea (termed as RTD, radial temperature difference) on a 66-year-old chronic dry eye patient and reported a significant difference in RTD between dry eye (1.40∘C) and healthy eye (0.37∘C). A novel “diamond” method in marking the ocular surface and OST acquisition was employed [23]
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