[Clinical characteristics of patients with dry eye syndrome]

To learn the clinical characteristics of patients with dry eye syndrome.

The following items were recorded in 115 patients (229 eyes) with dry eye, including symptoms, causation, systematic diseases, slit-lamp examination, tear break-up time, basal and reflex Schirmer's test, vital staining (fluorescent and rose bangle) and meibomian gland dysfunction examination. Rheumatoid factor and auto-antibody detection were performed in Sjögren's syndrome suspected patients.

Aqueous tear deficiency (ATD, 48.7%) ranked the most common type, followed by over-evaporation dry eye (34.8%), mixed type (13.9%) and conjunctivochalasis (3.5%). In all the causes of the dry eye, about 11.3% had Sjögren syndrome (SS). Females suffering from dry eye were more than males, especially SS. Dryness was the most common symptom (84.0%), especially in ATD patients, then followed by ocular fatigue (72.0%), foreign body sensation (64.0%) and impairment of vision (56.0%). The ocular irritation was more severe in meibomain gland dysfunction (MGD) patients than in ATD patients. Among the results of tear break-up time (BUT), rose bangle (Rb) staining and fluorescent (Fl) staining in all types of dry eye, significant relationship was found among them, especially between Rb and Fl score (r = 0.612, P = 0.000). SS patients had much more severe abnormality in all the four signs than non-SS aqueous tear deficiency (NSTD) and MGD patients. However, in the comparisons of BUT, Rb and Fl between NSTD and MGD patients, there were no significant differences.

Symptoms combined with examinations of BUT, Schirmer's test, Fl and Rb staining and meibomian gland function are the necessary means to diagnose most of the dry eye patients.