Tear osmolarity is validated as a very effective tool in the diagnosis of dry eye disease in an office setting

Abstract

Evaluation of: Jacobi C, Jacobi A, Kruse FE, Cursiefen C. Tear film osmolarity measurements in dry eye disease using electrical impedance technology. Cornea 30(12), 1289–1292 (2011).

In the study by Jacobi et al. the authors evaluated the clinical utility of a new office-based test for tear osmolarity in the diagnosis of dry eye disease. TearLab™ technology collects and uses a very small sample of tears (50 nl) from the inferior lid marginal tear strip to measure osmolarity employing electrical impedance. This process takes only a few seconds to perform and is minimally invasive. Using a cohort of subjects with moderate-to-severe dry eye and an age- and gender-matched control group, the authors have demonstrated that there is a statistically significant higher osmolarity in these dry eye patients than in normal controls. They conclude that TearLab osmolarity is a very effective tool in the diagnosis of dry eye disease.

Keywords::

• dry eye biomarker
• dry eye disease
• tear composition
• tear film
• tear osmolarity

Financial & competing interests disclosure

MA Lemp serves as a consultant to TearLab Corp. He receives a consulting fee for advice on development and pertinent medical matters. He also owns stock in the company. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.