Estudio del tiempo de ruptura lagrimal en una población joven

Abstract

ntroduction: The tear film determination is important, specially in contact lens (CL) wearers. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of the tear film on a young population. Material and methods: 31 university students (36% men and 64% women) between 19 and 27 years old (mean ± SD: 21.19 ± 1.84 years) were included in the study. Neither subject had signs or symptoms indicating dry eye. BUT and NIBUT were measured on the right eye of all subjects together with the area where the tear film first broke-up. Results: Although it was observed a tendency of NIBUT to overestimate the BUT values, both tests did not show any statistical significant difference. There is good agreement between both tests in fewer stability values, whereas the agreement decreases notably in higher values. Even though the study sample was formed by subjects free from dry eye, it was found that about 50% had BUT and NIBUT values below than 10 seconds. Apart from the test used, the tear film broke-up more frequently in the corneal periphery, being the inferior area the most frequently and the superior zone the least frequently. Conclusion: To take long time for measuring the tear break-up time could bias the results due to the increase of the lachrymal reflex. The cut value of 10 seconds to distinguish normal eye from dry eye could be slightly overestimated, so the authors propose to do more research about this. The tear film breaks-up more frequently in the inferior periphery, so to measure the NIBUT with the keratometric images would be unreliable.