Accuracy of Tear Breakup Time in Clinically Suspected Dry Eye Disease Patients

Abstract

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of tear breakup time in comparison to clinical findings for the diagnosis of dry eye disease.
Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out at department of Ophthalmology, Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Services Hospital, Lahore for 6 months, from March 1st, 2016 to  31st of August 2016. The Non probability consecutive sampling technique was used. Informed consent was taken from all the patients. Complete ophthalmic examination performed prior to TBUT (Tear breakup time) evaluation. This included detailed anterior and posterior segment examination on slit lamp. TBUT measurement was done. All the collected data was entered and analyzed on SPSS for Windows, version 21.0.
Results: The mean age of patients was 44.17±15.11 years. The male to female ratio was 1:1.2.In this study the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of TBUT was 93.33%, 93.55% and 93.5% respectively taking clinical findings as gold standard.
Conclusions: It has been proved in our study that the tear breakup time is a useful tool with high diagnostic accuracy in diagnosis of clinical suspected cases of DED (Dry eye disease).