Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing Key Laboratory of Restoration of Damaged Ocular Nerve, Beijing, China.
Cixi Institute of BioMedical Engineering, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, China.
Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2021 May 3;10(6):26. doi: 10.1167/tvst.10.6.26.
This study quantified corneal subbasal nerve tortuosity in dry eye disease (DED) and investigated its correlation with clinical parameters by proposing an aggregated measure of tortuosity (Tagg).
The sample consisted of 26 eyes of patients with DED and 23 eyes of healthy volunteers, which represented separately the dry eye group and the control group. Clinical evaluation of DED and in vivo confocal microscopy analysis of the central cornea were performed. Tagg incorporated six metrics of tortuosity. Corneal subbasal nerve images of subjects and a validation data set were analyzed using Tagg. Spearman's rank correlation was performed on Tagg and clinical parameters.
Tagg was validated using 1501 corneal nerve images. Tagg was higher in patients with DED than in healthy volunteers (P < 0.001). Tagg was positively correlated with the ocular surface disease index (r = 0.418, P = 0.003) and negatively correlated with tear breakup time (r = -0.398, P = 0.007). There was no correlation between Tagg and visual analog scale scores, corneal fluorescein staining scores, or the Schirmer I test.
Tagg was validated for quantification of corneal subbasal nerve tortuosity and was higher in patients with DED than in healthy volunteers. A higher Tagg may be linked to ocular discomfort, visual function disturbance, and tear film instability.
Corneal subbasal nerve tortuosity is a potential biomarker for corneal neurobiology in DED.
本研究通过提出一种神经扭曲的综合度量指标（Tagg），定量评估干燥性眼病（DED）患者的角膜基底神经扭曲，并探讨其与临床参数的相关性。
研究样本包括 26 只 DED 患者的眼睛和 23 只健康志愿者的眼睛，分别代表干眼组和对照组。对 DED 进行临床评估，并对中央角膜进行活体共聚焦显微镜分析。Tagg 纳入了 6 个扭曲度量指标。使用 Tagg 分析研究对象和验证数据集的角膜基底神经图像。对 Tagg 与临床参数进行 Spearman 秩相关分析。
使用 1501 张角膜神经图像对 Tagg 进行了验证。DED 患者的 Tagg 高于健康志愿者（P < 0.001）。Tagg 与眼表疾病指数（r = 0.418，P = 0.003）呈正相关，与泪膜破裂时间（r = -0.398，P = 0.007）呈负相关。Tagg 与视觉模拟量表评分、角膜荧光素染色评分或 Schirmer I 试验均无相关性。
Tagg 已被验证可用于定量评估角膜基底神经扭曲，DED 患者的 Tagg 高于健康志愿者。较高的 Tagg 可能与眼部不适、视觉功能障碍和泪膜不稳定有关。
温淑霞
