Analysis of tear film break-up time based on the tear film surface quality obtained using Placido rings images

摘要

Dry eye is one of the most reported eye health conditions and it is characterized by dryness, decreased tear production, or increased tear film evaporation. Middle-aged and elderly people are most commonly affected because of the high prevalence of contact lens usage, systemic drug effects, autoimmune diseases, and refractive surgeries. Corneal topography images have been recently used for noninvasive assessment, based on the Placido rings pattern. The rings in normal eyes are smooth and have no distortion, whereas they are distorted in affected eyes. We developed a method of analysis that process the corneal topography image to determine the Tear Break-up Time (TBUT), using the Tear Film Surface Quality (TFSQ) measurement. To avoid distortions not caused by the tear film break-up, the method dynamically removes eyelashes shadows from the image processing area. The results show that the proposed analysis is able to determine the TBUT based on the graphical analysis, and it can be used to help eye care specialists to diagnose dry eye disease.