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Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial disease of the ocular surface characterized by loss of homeostasis of the tear film. Epidemiological studies suggest it occurs more frequently in women than men. The aim of this retrospective analysis was to determine whether patients with DED show gender-specific differences in symptoms and signs. A retrospective analysis of 107 patients was conducted at the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Düsseldorf – Germany. After completing the OSDI questionnaire, the patients underwent objective refraction and were asked about the following symptoms: burning, itching, foreign body sensation, epiphora, sticky eyes, pain, red eyes and swollen eyelids. Furthermore, they underwent an evaluation of the following signs: lipid layer thickness, non-invasive break-up-time (NI-BUT), conjunctival hyperemia, lid parallel conjunctival folds, meibography, Schirmer test and tear meniscus height, ocular surface staining, expressibility of meibomian glands. Of the 107 patients (56.2 ± 17.3 years) 75 were women and 32 men. Women reported significantly more often eyelid swelling (p =.03) and showed a tendency to complain more about red eyes (p =.051), while men tended to complain more often about epiphora (p =.053). In an age-matched sample taken from the cohort, significant differences were found for OSDI-scores (p =.025) showing women reporting more symptoms compared to men, while men showed more conjunctival hyperaemia (p =.004) than women. Women showed a significant thicker lipid layer (p =.0009) in the full cohort, but not in the age-matched sample (p =.43). Although the majority of the investigated parameters did not show gender-specific differences, women reported higher OSDI scores. These findings could be explained by an increased frequency of neuropathic symptoms or ocular surface sensitivity in women or higher resilience of men to consult an ophthalmologist. Sex may have an effect on the clinical characteristics of DED, but further studies are needed to confirm these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The first aim of this study was to compare inferior tear meniscus height (TMH) measured by keratography and swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT). Effect of locations of fluorescein instillation and subjects' subjective sensation, and the TMH results were also investigated. Methods: Forty-one eyes from 41 healthy adults had TMH randomly measured by keratography (K5M, Oculus, Germany) and swept-source OCT (Casia SS-1000, Tomey Corp, Japan) at baseline, followed by touching either the inferior bulbar or inferior palpebral conjunctiva, randomly assigned, with a moistened fluorescein strip. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare TMH obtained from the two devices and three measurement conditions. Subjective sensation of conjunctival touch was obtained through a 4-point scale with zero representing no sensation, and one to three representing ocular sensation in an ascending order. Results: Two-way ANOVA revealed no significant difference in TMH between keratography and swept-source OCT (Factor (devices): F = 0.579, p =.451) while there was a significant difference among fluorescein instillations (Factor (conditions): F = 10.146, p <.001). Baseline TMH was around 0.25 mm, and increased to around 0.28 mm after instillation of fluorescein sodium. Ocular sensation was similar between the two conjunctival touch, and TMH was not significantly associated with ocular sensation. Conclusions: Keratography and swept-source OCT provided similar TMH results. Applying fluorescein sodium through moistened fluorescein strip could over-estimate TMH by around 0.03 mm. Applying moistened fluorescein strip at bulbar or palpebral conjunctival led to similar subjective sensations and did not affect TMH measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]