• Emily Pik Yin Choy, Pauline Cho, Iris Frances Forster Benzie, Camus Kar Man Choy, and Tony Shing Shun To.
• Department of Optometry and Radiography, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China. oremily.choy@polyu.edu.hk
• Curr. Eye Res. 2004 May 1; 28 (5): 319-25.

PurposeTo investigate inter- and intra-system variations and the effect of corneal drying using a recently developed pDEM.MethodspDEM was used to simulate "normal" and "dry eye" conditions using two "lacrimation-blink" intervals (20 s and 60 s). Corneas were examined/graded with sodium fluorescein before and after the experiment. At the end of each experiment, corneas were assessed by trypan blue exclusion technique. Two duplicated pDEM systems were set up and tested to investigate reproducibility.ResultsThere was no significant difference in the results produced by the two pDEM systems. In the eyes under "normal" condition, there was no significant increase in the fluorescein grading. However, in eyes under "dry eye" condition, fluorescein staining increased and the number of non-viable cells in the central cornea increased.ConclusionsThis novel pDEM system provides a useful assessment tool for the study of causative factors and new treatment strategies for dry eye syndrome.

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