Affiliation:
1. Aier eye hospital of Wuhan University
2. Gansu Provincial Hospital
Abstract
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the relationship between the tear lymphotoxin-α (LT-α) concentration, conjunctival goblet cell density (GCD) and ophthalmic parameters in dry eye patients and the value of the LT-α concentration and conjunctival GCD in diagnosing dry eye.
Methods
Prospective case‒control study. Seventy-eight dry eye patients and twenty normal subjects were recruited. After completing the China Dry Eye Questionnaire, all subjects were examined in sequence with slit-lamp microscopy, tear LT-α concentration analysis, tear meniscus height measurement, the Schirmer I test and the conjunctival GCD examination using confocal microscopy.
Results
The conjunctival GCD (54.70 (24.38–126.50) cells/mm2) in the dry eye group was lower than that in the control group (125.80 (72.75–180.00) cells/mm2) (P = 0.011). The LT-α concentration(0.17(0.05–1.18) ng/ml) in the dry eye group was lower than that in the control group(0.30(0.13–1.32) ng/ml) without statistical significance (P = 0.366). And the LT-α concentrations were positively correlated with the tear film breakup time (FBUT) ( r = 0.262, p < 0.01). When LT-α < 1.47 ng/ml (81.6% subjects fell in this range), conjunctival GCD was positively correlated with the LT-α concentration (β = 63.92, P = 0.004). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of LT-α concentration in the diagnosis of dry eye was 0.5657, the cutoff value was 0.11 ng/ml, the sensitivity was 41.03%, and the specificity was 80.00%. The AUC of conjunctival GCD in the diagnosis of dry eye was 0.6993, the cutoff value was 67.90 cells/mm2, the sensitivity was 59.15%, and the specificity was 82.35%.
Conclusion
The LT-α concentration is valuable in evaluating conjunctival GCD and tear film stability. The value of evaluating the conjunctival GCD using confocal microscopy in dry eye diagnosis is worthy of attention.
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC