Relationship between the partial blink rate and ocular surface parameters

• DOI: 10.1007/s10792-021-01819-9
• Publication Date: 2021-03-25T22:43:10Z
• Authors: Young Joon Jeon; Mi Yeon Song; Kook Young Kim; Kyu-Yeon Hwang; Young-A. Kwon; Kyungmin Koh
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Original Paper; Blinking; Meibomian Glands; Middle Aged; 03 medical and health sciences; Cross-Sectional Studies; 0302 clinical medicine; Italy; Tears; Humans; Dry Eye Syndromes; Female; Aged; Retrospective Studies

To elucidate the relationship between partial blink rate (PBR) and ocular surface parameters.We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study of the patients who visited the Kim's Eye Hospital between March 2020 and July 2020. Blinking dynamics, tear film lipid layer thickness (LLT), non-invasive tear film break- up time (NITBUT), tear meniscus height (TMH), and meibomian gland (MG) dropout rate were assessed using the IDRA® Ocular surface analyzer (SBM SISTEMI, Inc., Torino, Italy) (IDRA). Dry eye symptoms were quantified by the Standard Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness (SPEED) questionnaire scores.A total of 47 non-Sjögren dry eye patients (47 right eyes, mean age = 56.8 ± 14.5 [20-75] years, 66% female) were enrolled. Among the ocular surface parameters, PBR had strong correlations with MG dropout rate (r = 0.811; p < 0.01) and moderate correlations with SPEED scores (r = 0.596; p < 0.01). MG dropout rate and age had moderate correlations with SPEED scores (r = 0.416; p = 0.04 and r = 0.322; p = 0.03, respectively). Comparisons by sex revealed no significant difference in characteristics, except for the TMH value. The TMH of female patients (0.17 ± 0.07) was significantly higher than that of males (0.14 ± 0.04; p = 0.04). LLT showed no significant correlation with the other variables.PBR and MG dropout rates measured with IDRA were significantly correlated to dry eye symptoms.