RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SYMPTOMS AND DIAGNOSTIC TEST OF DRY EYE: A CLUSTER ANALYSIS APPROACH
Abstract:
The current study aim is to analyse the relationship between symptoms (Schirmer test, tear film breakup time tests, ocular surface staining) and diagnostic test of dry eye (ocular surface disease index questionnaire - OSDI) using a cluster analysis approach. The research was performed among the patients (32 with dry eye disease and 15 control subjects) admitted to the Ophthalmology Clinic of Clinical County Emergency Hospital of Sibiu, Romania. For all performed tests, the differences between dry-eye group and control group were statistically significant (OSDI 47.03±19.86 vs. 8.53±3.72, BUT 3.86±1.43 vs. 17.83±1.87, SCHL 4.47±3.25 vs. 20.37±2.79, OXF 0.88±0.87 vs. 0±0.86). The cluster analysis procedure, in the context of our patient’s data, estimates the following hierarchical discriminative importance of the tests results: BUT (100%), Schirmer I Test (67%), OSDI (29%), OXF (12%). Tear film instability is a common link for all types of dry eyes and its evaluation can be crucial when there is no ocular staining and the tear volume is normal or abundant.
full text article in English (.EN) |