Dry Eye Disease Parameters Among Patients With Ocular Surface Disease In A Sample Of Egyptian Patients

to estimate prevalence of different etiologies in a sample of Egyptian population that already diagnosed as having dry eye disease (DED).

This is a descriptive cross sectional study conducted at Kasr Al-Aini, Cairo University hospitals ophthalmology outpatient clinic.  Informed consent was obtained from patients, or their guardians and all tenets of Declaration of Helsinki were followed. The study protocol was approved by the ethical committee, Cairo University with IRB number MS-63-2023.

Cross-sectional study, in which 100 patients with DED were enrolled. DED was assessed using invasive break-up time (BUT), DEQ5 questionnaire and MediWorks Dry Eye Diagnostic System, which evaluated non-invasive break-up time (NIBUT), tear meniscus height, lipid layer thickness, eyelid edge morphology and meibomian gland morphology.

100 eyes with DED were included. Mean age was 41.06 ± 13.08 years (range, 20-70 years) and 68% were females. Mean CDVA was 0.3 ± 0.19 logMAR (range, 0.00-1.0).  Mean TBUT was 5.97 ± 2.3 seconds (range 1-9 seconds) while mean NIBUT was 9.22 ± 4.7 seconds (range, 0.24-21 seconds). TMH was 0.27 ± 0.13 mm (range, 0.01-0.69 mm). DEQ5 score ranged from 10-20, with a mean of 16.88 ± 3.65. On MGD grading 49% and 42% of eyes showed grades 2 and 1 MGD respectively. There was no statistically significant correlation between gender and degree of MGD (p=0.808). TBUT was negatively correlated with age, DQ5 score and CDVA (p=0.023, <0.001 and <0.001 respectively), but showed no statistically significant association with tear height (p=0.133).

Most of Egyptian dry eye patients had an element of MGD that has to be addressed in treating dry eye Egyptian patients