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Novel Ocular Thermography Metrics for Dry Eye Screening
Maryam Moghadas1, Amir M Moezzi2, Kaoutar Laachiri3
1Menicon R&D Innovation Centre, Menicon Co., Ltd., Nagoya, Japan, (Geneva branch, Switzerland).
Translational Vision Science & Technology
|October 29, 2025
Summary
Automated ocular thermography shows promise for dry eye disease (DED) screening. Shorter thermal interblink intervals and faster cooling rates in DED patients suggest its utility for assessing ocular dryness noninvasively.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Medical Imaging
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Dry eye disease (DED) is a prevalent condition affecting ocular surface health.
- Current diagnostic methods for DED can be invasive or subjective.
- Objective and quantifiable screening tools are needed for early DED detection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of automated ocular thermography metrics in screening for dry eye disease (DED).
- To determine if thermal cooling rate and thermal interblink interval (IBI) can differentiate between DED patients and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- A prospective study enrolled 40 participants (20 with DED, 20 controls).
- Standard DED assessments included OSDI, DEQ5, NITBUT, TMH, MGD score, and corneal staining.
- Ocular surface thermography was performed, deriving thermal cooling rate and thermal IBI.
Main Results:
- The DED group exhibited significantly shorter thermal IBI (P=0.034) and faster thermal cooling rates (P=0.047) compared to controls.
- Both thermal IBI and cooling rate showed significant correlations with DED severity scores (DEQ5 and OSDI).
- Combining thermal cooling rate and TMH yielded the best diagnostic performance (AUC=0.80).
Conclusions:
- Automated ocular thermography metrics, specifically thermal IBI and cooling rate, are significant predictors of DED.
- Ocular thermography offers a noninvasive, quantifiable, and real-time method for DED screening.
- These findings support the utility of thermography as an adjunctive tool in DED assessment.
