Comparison of strip meniscometry and Schirmer tear test results and tear film breakup time between healthy dogs and dogs with dry eye disease

Abstract

To compare strip meniscometry and Schirmer tear test 1 results and tear film breakup time between dogs with normal eyes and dogs diagnosed with keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Methods: One-hundred fifty-six eyes of 78 dogs, 88 normal eyes, and 68 eyes diagnosed with keratoconjunctivitis sicca were included in the study. The tests were performed in the following sequence: Schirmer tear test 1 was used to allocate the dogs to the normal or keratoconjunctivitis sicca group, followed by the strip meniscometry test and tear film breakup time measurement. Results: The results (mean ± standard deviation) of the tests in the normal group were as follows: Schirmer tear test 1, 22.75 ± 3.88 mm/min; strip meniscometry test, 10.01 ± 2.35 mm/5 sec; and tear film breakup time, 25.82 ± 5.47 sec. In the keratoconjunctivitis sicca group, the results were as follows: Schirmer tear test 1, 6.10 ± 4.44 mm/min; strip meniscometry test, 3.03 ± 2.62 mm/5 sec; and tear film breakup time, 10.78 ± 4.23 sec. The Spearman correlation coefficient in the keratoconjunctivitis sicca group was very high, with a significant difference between the strip meniscometry test and Schirmer tear test 1 (r=0.848, p<0.001), and moderate and significant between the strip meniscometry test and tear film breakup time (r=0.773, p<0.001). The cutoff for the strip meniscometry test for keratoconjunctivitis sicca was 7.0 mm/5 sec. Keratoconjunctivitis sicca was suspected when the values were <10 mm/5 sec. Conclusions: This study provided strip meniscometry test values from dogs with normal eyes and eyes with keratoconjunctivitis sicca, with high sensitivity and specificity compared with those of the Schirmer tear test 1. In the future, the strip meniscometry test may be another important quantitative test and could complement the gold standard Schirmer tear test for the diagnosis of keratoconjunctivitis sicca in dogs, an excellent animal model for the study of the disease.

A comparative review of evaporative dry eye disease and meibomian gland dysfunction in dogs and humans

“…In addition to the quality of the tears, it is clinically important to determine the quantity of tears present in a patient presumed to have dry eye disease to determine which subtype is/are present. There are a myriad of diagnostic tests available to quantitate aqueous tear production, including STT, endodontic paper point tests, 56 phenol red thread test, 61,81 strip meniscometry test, [82][83][84] and many others. For the purposes of this review, we will compare and contrast the STT-1, the most commonly performed measurement of aqueous tear production.…”

A review of diagnostic tests for qualitative and quantitative tear film deficiency in dogs

“…As such, SMT is a less invasive tool for the measurement of eyes in clinical practice 70 . SMT values vary from 7.3 ± 2.2 to 10.97 ± 2.93 mm/5 s in healthy canines 5,70,72–74 …”