Impact of TearCare on Reading Speed in Patients with Dry Eye Disease

Abstract

Yilin Feng,1 Nandini Venkateswaran,1 Amanda Steele,2 Eric D Rosenberg,3 Preeya K Gupta2,4 1Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 2Triangle Eye Consultants, Raleigh, NC, USA; 3Department of Ophthalmology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, USA; 4Department of Ophthalmology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USACorrespondence: Preeya K Gupta, Email [email protected]: To evaluate the impact of TearCare (TC) treatment on clinical, quality of life, and functional visual outcome metrics in patients with dry eye disease (DED) and meibomian gland disease (MGD).Methods: This is a prospective, single-center clinical trial. Adults with MGD and a DED diagnosis and tear break-up time (TBUT) 10 words per minute increase in their IReST score. Improvement on the IReST and the MNREAD reached statistical significance (p = 0.012 and p = 0.028, respectively). OSDI scores significantly decreased and VFQ-25 scores significantly increased after TC treatment (p < 0.001). All of the clinical exam parameters showed statistically significant improvements after treatment (p < 0.001).Conclusion: TC is an effective treatment both clinically and with respect to visual function. Patients who had TC exhibited improvements in quality of life and improved reading speed after a single treatment. This treatment should be frequently considered and utilized to reduce the disease burden of DED related to MGD.Keywords: thermal pulsation, tearcare, meibomian gland dysfunction, dry eye disease, reading speed

Keywords

• thermal pulsation
• tearcare
• meibomian gland dysfunction
• dry eye disease
• reading speed