Tear film breakup and structure studied by simultaneous video recording of fluorescence and tear film lipid layer images.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

The thinning of the precorneal tear film between blinks and tear film breakup can be logically analyzed into contributions from three components: evaporation, flow into the cornea, and tangential flow along the corneal surface. Whereas divergent tangential flow contributes to certain types of breakup, it has been argued that evaporation is the main cause of tear thinning and breakup. Because evaporation is controlled by the tear film lipid layer (TFLL) it should therefore be expected that patterns of breakup should match patterns in the TFLL, and this hypothesis is tested in this study.

Methods

An optical system is described for simultaneous video imaging of fluorescein tear film breakup and the TFLL. Recordings were made from 85 subjects, including both with healthy

SUBMITTER: King-Smith PE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3720150 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature