title: Usability and reproducibility of tear meniscus values generated via swept-source optical coherence tomography and the slit lamp with a graticule method.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the usability and the reproducibility of the tear meniscus values via swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) and the conventional slit lamp microscope method with a graticule.
  
  
  METHODS
  The right eye was examined in 90 healthy adult subjects who were grouped according to age (group 1: 20-39 years; group 2: 40-59 years; group 3: ≥60 years). The tear meniscus height (TMH) and tear meniscus area were measured using SS-OCT and TMH by the slit lamp microscope method. The reproducibility of each method was calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) in additionally enrolled 30 healthy young subjects. We also evaluated TMH at 3 mm from the corneal center in both temporal and nasal directions using SS-OCT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean of the TMH values measured by SS-OCT was significantly higher than those measured by the slit lamp method (328 vs. 212 μm, P < 0.001, respectively). High reproducibility was observed for each method (ICC > 0.75 for both). No statistically significant differences were found in TMH among the age groups using both SS-OCT and slit lamp methods (P = 0.985, 0.380, respectively). TMH values at both sides of the corneal center were significantly smaller than those at the corneal center (P < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TMH values obtained by the slit lamp method were lower than those obtained by SS-OCT. However, both methods yielded highly reproducible TMH measurements, suggesting that they are clinically useful. Tear meniscus values did not vary by age but by measurement points in our cohort.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Saneikai Tsukazaki Hospital, 68-1, Aboshi Waku, Himeji, 671-1227, Japan. h.imamura@tsukazaki-eye.net.|Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan. h.imamura@tsukazaki-eye.net.
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7004-3629
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Imamura
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Saneikai Tsukazaki Hospital, 68-1, Aboshi Waku, Himeji, 671-1227, Japan.
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tabuchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Saneikai Tsukazaki Hospital, 68-1, Aboshi Waku, Himeji, 671-1227, Japan.
authors.forename: Shunsuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakakura
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Saneikai Tsukazaki Hospital, 68-1, Aboshi Waku, Himeji, 671-1227, Japan.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nagasato
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Saneikai Tsukazaki Hospital, 68-1, Aboshi Waku, Himeji, 671-1227, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kiuchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D000072776:Slit Lamp Microscopy / Q000379:methods; D013666:Tears / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Reproducibility; SS-OCT; Slit lamp; Tear meniscus; Usability