Abstract
Purpose :
Dry Eye Disease (DED) results from abnormalities of the natural tear film, a complex gel solution that coats the ocular surface. A wide variety of over-the-counter artificial tears (AT) supplements are available to treat DED although objective, evidence based comparative data regarding their performance improving measures of tear anatomy and function remain scant. We compared the ability of 13 AT preparations to improve objective measures of tear film anatomy and function. Saline drops are used as a control.
Methods :
AT formulations tested included: Systane Complete PF (SCPF), Refresh Relieva (RR), GenTeal Gel (GTG), Hylo-Tear (HT), Ivizia (I), Systane Ultra (SU), Refresh Optive Mega 3 (ROM3), Similasan (SS), Soothe XP (SXP), Up&Up (UU), Visine (V), and GenTeal Tears (GTT). Saline (S) was used as a control.
Tear Meniscus Height (TMH) and Non-Invasive Keratographic Tear BreakupTime (NIKBUT) were measured using an advanced keratography unit (AKU) [Oculus Keratograph 5M]. Central Lipid Layer Thickness (LLT) was measured with an interferometer [Lipiview 2]. Measures were taken at baseline, and 5 and 15 minutes after instillation as per manufacturer instructions.
Systat was used for statistical calculations. After data normalization, ANOVA and a post hoc Tukey test was done for each drop, parameter, and timepoint. The mean (M), standard error (SE) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for each were calculated.
Results :
242 eyes (122 patients) participated in the study. Table 1 shows ANOVA results for first/avg TBUT, TMH and LLT at 5 and 15 min. All AT resulted in an improvement in some tear parameters, but no tear was superior at all time points for all measures. The best performers for (TMH), [TBUT] and {LLT} were (GTG), [SU, S, RR] and {HT, SXP} respectively (Table 2).
Conclusions :
No AT performance was consistently superior at all time points for all measures. For each measure (TMH, NIKBUT, and LLT), a subset of drops performed better than others. This suggests that the composition of drops is important to their relative performance. Tailoring specific types of AT to patients with certain aspects of DED dysfunction may be beneficial. Based on these preliminary data: SU, S and RR may be more beneficial for patients with low break up times, while HT and SXP may be more beneficial for those with low LLT, and GTG may be more beneficial for those with low TMH.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.