Tear Film Breakup and Structure Studied by Simultaneous Video Recording of Fluorescence and Tear Film Lipid Layer Images

摘要

Purpose.The thinning of the precorneal tear film between blinks and tear film breakup can be logically analyzed into contributions from three components: evaporation, flow into the cornea, and tangential flow along the corneal surface. Whereas divergent tangential flow contributes to certain types of breakup, it has been argued that evaporation is the main cause of tear thinning and breakup. Because evaporation is controlled by the tear film lipid layer (TFLL) it should therefore be expected that patterns of breakup should match patterns in the TFLL, and this hypothesis is tested in this study.