Abstract: Challenges in the clinical measurement of OSD in glaucoma patients.

It's nice to see a couple of the best known names in dry eye worldwide directing attention to dry eye in glaucoma patients. I'm not sure why clinically measuring OSD in glaucoma patients could be any different than in any other patient, but its always good to see some attention focused on the importance of diagnosing it.

Challenges in the clinical measurement of ocular surface disease in glaucoma patients.

Ocular surface disease (OSD) is common among glaucoma patients. Clinical assessment of OSD can be challenging. This review focuses on some of the limitations relating to both subjective and objective measures of OSD, including dry eye. A survey of the literature was conducted to identify the caveats associated with different methods of assessing OSD. The effect of preservatives on the ocular surface, with respect to glaucoma patients in particular, was also reviewed. Objective methods for assessing ocular surface health and disease include the Schirmer test, tear break-up time, fluorescein turnover, corneal and conjunctival staining, tear osmolarity, and vital dyes. These measures all have limitations in terms of their ability to grade the severity of OSD. Previous studies using the OSD Index showed a mild-to-moderate correlation to dry eye disease severity. Other scoring systems for dry eye have shown a relationship to patient symptom scores or quality of life. Due to the challenges clinicians face concerning both subjective and objective ocular surface health assessments, discerning clinical improvement in ocular surface disease can be a challenge. Further research is needed in order to optimize existing clinical methods and/or identify alternative techniques for assessing OSD in the glaucoma population.

Clin Ophthalmol. 2011;5:1575-83. Epub 2011 Nov 1.
Pflugfelder SC, Baudouin C.
Ophthalmology-Ocular Surface Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.