Relationship of impression cytology and tear ferning to reports of dry eye.

Purpose: This study investigated whether there is a significant correlation between mild-to-moderate patient reports of dry eye and results on the tear ferning and impression cytology tests.

Methods: One hundred and four subjects were surveyed for presence or absence of dry eye symptoms. Membrane impression cytology and tear ferning were performed on each subject. Impression cytology specimens were evaluated for the presence of goblet cells, presence of epithelial cell sheets, and epithelial cell morphology. Tear specimens were evaluated for quality of ferning.

Results: A significant correlation was found between subjective dry eye symptoms and impression cytology results (cc = 0.28, p = 0.003). However, there was no statistically significant correlation between dry eye symptoms and tear fern results (cc = 0.072, p = 0.458).

Conclusions: Impression cytology appeared to be a better predictor of mild-to-moderate dry eye symptoms than tear ferning.