Smartphone-Based Interferometry for Non-Invasive Assessment of Tear Film Lipid Layer Kinetics

抄録

Tear interferometers are used to observe the tear film lipid layer (TFLL) for dry eye examination in the clinical setting. However, these devices are large and expensive, and they are not accessible to the general public for eye care. Smartphone-based interferometry (SBI) has been developed for daily monitoring of eye health. In this study, the kinetics of the TFLL in 40 participants, including 9 contact lens (CL) wearers, was analyzed using tear film interference images taken by SBI. The lipid spread time (LST), the initial velocity of TFLL spread calculated from Voigt model of viscoelasticity, and the tear meniscus height (TMH) were measured. The average LST was 1.1±0.5 s and 1.6±0.6 s for non-CL and CL wearers, respectively. TFLL spread height and the Voigt model were strongly correlated for both non-CL wearers (R²=0.97) and CL wearers (R²=0.98), respectively. Furthermore, the initial velocity of TFLL spread was found to correlate with the TMH for only non-CL wearers (r=0.534, p=0.003). In summary, this study shows the potential of SBI as a new tool for non-invasive assessment of TFLL kinetics.