[Evaluation of conjunctival epithelial damage in dry eye].

Using sulphorhodamine B, which is highly sensitive in detecting damaged ocular surface epithelium, we evaluated conjunctival epithelial damage in dry eye patients. The subjects were 99 eyes of 50 dry eye patients (41 eyes of 21 patients with Sjögren's syndrome and 58 eyes of 29 keratoconjunctivitis sicca patients without Sjögren's syndrome). We also investigated the relation between sulphorhodamine B and fluorescein staining in ocular surface epithelium. The conjunctival epithelial damage stained with sulphorhodamine B showed a high correlation with corneal epithelial damage stained with fluorescein. In addition, conjunctival damage in Sjögren's syndrome tended to be more severe than in patients without Sjögren's syndrome.