Noninvasive tear breakup times and ocular surface disease

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Optometry
• Vision Science

Background:

• Dry eye disease is a prevalent condition affecting ocular surface health.
• Accurate assessment of dry eye disease relies on validated patient-reported outcomes and objective clinical measurements.
• The Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) is a widely used questionnaire for assessing dry eye symptoms.
• Noninvasive tear breakup time (NITBUT) is a key objective measure of tear film stability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the correlation between the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and noninvasive tear breakup times (NITBUTs).
• To evaluate the utility of the Keratograph 4 device in assessing tear film stability in relation to patient-reported dry eye symptoms.

Main Methods:

• A prospective study included 99 participants, with no significant age or sex differences.
• Participants completed the OSDI questionnaire.
• Keratograph 4 measurements were taken for the first noninvasive tear breakup time (NITBUT(f)) and average noninvasive tear breakup time (NITBUT(av)).

Main Results:

• The first noninvasive tear breakup time (NITBUT(f)) was significantly shorter than the average noninvasive tear breakup time (NITBUT(av)).
• Both NITBUT(f) and NITBUT(av) showed identical, statistically significant, weak negative correlations with OSDI scores (r(s) = -0.20, p = 0.05).

Conclusions:

• The Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and noninvasive tear breakup time (NITBUT) measurements using the Keratograph 4 exhibit a weak but statistically significant negative correlation.
• This suggests that while subjective dry eye symptoms (OSDI) and objective tear film stability (NITBUT) are related, the association is not strong.