Tear clearance implications for ocular surface health.

Tear clearance/turnover provides a global assessment of the function of the lacrimal functional unit and of tear exchange on the ocular surface. It is an indirect measure of dry eye induced inflammation on the ocular surface. It shows better correlation with the severity of ocular irritation symptoms and corneal epithelial disease in dry eye than the Schirmer 1 test. Delayed tear clearance may prove to be the best measure for identifying patients with tear film disorders who may respond to anti-inflammatory therapy.

[1]  A. Solomon,et al.  Pro- and anti-inflammatory forms of interleukin-1 in the tear fluid and conjunctiva of patients with dry-eye disease. , 2001, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[2]  N. Eter,et al.  A new technique for tear film fluorophotometry , 2002, The British journal of ophthalmology.

[3]  A. Joshi,et al.  A new method for determining corneal epithelial barrier to fluorescein in humans. , 1996, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[4]  L. Sobrin,et al.  Tear fluid gelatinase B activity correlates with IL-1alpha concentration and fluorescein clearance in ocular rosacea. , 1999, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[5]  R. Beuerman,et al.  The pathology of dry eye: the interaction between the ocular surface and lacrimal glands. , 1998, Cornea.

[6]  S. Tseng,et al.  Frequent association of delayed tear clearance in ocular irritation , 1998, The British journal of ophthalmology.

[7]  M. Doane.  Interactions of eyelids and tears in corneal wetting and the dynamics of the normal human eyeblink. , 1980, American journal of ophthalmology.

[8]  Z. Werb,et al.  How matrix metalloproteinases regulate cell behavior. , 2001, Annual review of cell and developmental biology.

[9]  De-Quan Li,et al.  A mouse model of keratoconjunctivitis sicca. , 2002, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[10]  J. D. Nelson.  Simultaneous evaluation of tear turnover and corneal epithelial permeability by fluorophotometry in normal subjects and patients with keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS). , 1995, Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society.

[11]  A. Solomon,et al.  Regulated expression of collagenases MMP-1, -8, and -13 and stromelysins MMP-3, -10, and -11 by human corneal epithelial cells. , 2003, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[12]  J. Falkenburg,et al.  Interleukin 1 and poly(rI).poly(rC) induce production of granulocyte CSF, macrophage CSF, and granulocyte-macrophage CSF by human endothelial cells. , 1989, Experimental hematology.

[13]  Ji,et al.  Doxycycline inhibition of interleukin-1 in the corneal epithelium , 2000, American journal of ophthalmology.

[14]  K. Tsubota,et al.  Diseases associated with ocular surface abnormalities: the importance of reflex tearing , 1999, The British journal of ophthalmology.

[15]  W. Feuer,et al.  Correlation of tear fluorescein clearance and Schirmer test scores with ocular irritation symptoms. , 1999, Ophthalmology.

[16]  A. Solomon,et al.  Regulation of MMP-9 production by human corneal epithelial cells. , 2001, Experimental eye research.

[17]  M. Fini,et al.  Effects of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Gene Knock-Out on the Proteolysis of Blood–Brain Barrier and White Matter Components after Cerebral Ischemia , 2001, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[18]  A Macri,et al.  Correlation of the Schirmer 1 and fluorescein clearance tests with the severity of corneal epithelial and eyelid disease. , 2000, Archives of ophthalmology.

[19]  G. Chrousos,et al.  The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and immune-mediated inflammation. , 1995, The New England journal of medicine.

[20]  S. Pflugfelder,et al.  A standardized visual scale for evaluation of tear fluorescein clearance. , 2000, Ophthalmology.