TY - JOUR
T1 - Model for ocular tear film function
AU - Mathers, William D.
AU - Lane, James A.
AU - Sutphin, John E.
AU - Zimmerman, M. Bridget
PY - 1996
Y1 - 1996
N2 - Blepharitis patients have a number of disturbances in their tear film associated with meibomian gland dysfunction that affect evaporation and tear osmolarity. We tested a series of 156 consecutive patients, with a presumed diagnosis of blepharitis, dry eye, or allergic disease, and a series of 72 normals. We compared their tear film characteristics using tear osmolarity, tear volume, tear production (fluorophotometric and Schirmer test), tear turnover (decay constant), tear evaporation, and meibomian gland function evaluated by gland drop-out, expressed lipid viscosity, and volume. Of the 156 patients tested, we found 37 had only dry eye, 10 had only allergic disease, 73 had meibomian gland dysfunction and dry eye, and 36 had only meibomian gland dysfunction. We created a model of the relative influence some of these factors had on each other using their correlation coefficients. The highest correlations for osmolarity were Schirmer test (-0.44), lipid volume low (-0.44), lipid viscosity high (0.39), gland drop-out (0.39), and tear evaporation (0.36). With regression analysis we accounted for 47% of the total variation in osmolarity, but only 17% of the variation in tear evaporation. We also present our classification system for blepharitis and dry eye patients based on our measurable physiologic parameters.
AB - Blepharitis patients have a number of disturbances in their tear film associated with meibomian gland dysfunction that affect evaporation and tear osmolarity. We tested a series of 156 consecutive patients, with a presumed diagnosis of blepharitis, dry eye, or allergic disease, and a series of 72 normals. We compared their tear film characteristics using tear osmolarity, tear volume, tear production (fluorophotometric and Schirmer test), tear turnover (decay constant), tear evaporation, and meibomian gland function evaluated by gland drop-out, expressed lipid viscosity, and volume. Of the 156 patients tested, we found 37 had only dry eye, 10 had only allergic disease, 73 had meibomian gland dysfunction and dry eye, and 36 had only meibomian gland dysfunction. We created a model of the relative influence some of these factors had on each other using their correlation coefficients. The highest correlations for osmolarity were Schirmer test (-0.44), lipid volume low (-0.44), lipid viscosity high (0.39), gland drop-out (0.39), and tear evaporation (0.36). With regression analysis we accounted for 47% of the total variation in osmolarity, but only 17% of the variation in tear evaporation. We also present our classification system for blepharitis and dry eye patients based on our measurable physiologic parameters.
KW - Blepharitis
KW - Dry eye
KW - Evaporation
KW - Meibomian gland dysfunction
KW - Tear film
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0030047026&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0030047026&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/00003226-199603000-00002
DO - 10.1097/00003226-199603000-00002
M3 - Article
C2 - 8925657
AN - SCOPUS:0030047026
SN - 0277-3740
VL - 15
SP - 110
EP - 119
JO - Cornea
JF - Cornea
IS - 2
ER -