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V. Aranha dos Santos, L. Schmetterer, M. Gröschl, G. Garhöfer, D. Schmidl, M. Kucera, A. Unterhuber, J. Hermand, R.M. Werkmeister:
"In vivo tear film thickness measurement and tear film dynamics visualization using spectral domain optical coherence tomography";
Optics Express, 23 (2015), 16; 21043 - 21063.

Dry eye syndrome is a highly prevalent disease of the ocular
surface characterized by an instability of the tear film. Traditional methods
used for the evaluation of tear film stability are invasive or show limited
repeatability. Here we propose a new non-invasive fully automated
approach to measure tear film thickness based on spectral domain optical
coherence tomography and on an efficient delay estimator. Silicon wafer
phantom were used to validate the thickness measurement. The technique
was applied in vivo in healthy subjects. Series of tear film thickness maps
were generated, allowing for the visualization of tear film dynamics. Our
results show that the in vivo central tear film thickness measurements are
precise and repeatable with a coefficient of variation of about 0.65% and
that repeatable tear film dynamics can be observed. The presented approach
could be used in clinical setting to study patients with dry eye disease and
monitor their treatments.