Clinical analysis of the Keratograph 5M in the evaluation of dry eye patients

Objective To assess the clinical application of the Keratograph 5M in dry eye patients. Methods In a noninterventional， cross-sectional study， 135 eyes from 70 patients who were diagnosed with dry eye from October to November 2013 were recruited. The ocular surface disease index （OSDI）， Schirmer Ⅰ test （SⅠT） and meibomian secretion were measured. Tear meniscus height， tear film break-up time （BUT） and the meibomian glands were observed with the Keratograph 5M. A Pearson correlation and linear regression were used to study the correlation between the Keratograph 5M and traditional examinations， and the relationship between scores for the meibomian gland status compared to the ocular surface disease index and tear film break-up time. An interclass correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the repeatability of the Keratograph 5M. Results Scores for all subjects were OSDI， 15.8±3.4； SⅠT， 6.0±7.7 mm； tear meniscus height， 0.27±0.13 mm； BUT， 7.9±5.5 s； the meibomian secretion score， 3.3±1.4； and meiboscore 3.4±1.6. Both BUT and tear meniscus height were positively correlated with SⅠT （r=0.474， 0.432， P<0.01）. Both the meibomian secretion score and meiboscore had a positive correlation with OSDI （r=0.673， 0.752， P<0.05） and a negative correlation with BUT （r=-0.638， -0.603， P<0.05）. The Keratograph 5M showed fine test-retest reliability （ICC=0.84-0.89）. Conclusion The Keratograph 5M can directly evaluate the ocular surface condition of dry eye patients. The Keratograph 5M is a non-contact， noninvasive and reliable examination with practical clinical application.