Ocular Surface Temperature and Tear Film Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Concentration in Sjögren Syndrome Patients

Sjogren‘s syndrome (SS) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by polyglandular tissue destruction mainly affecting the salivar and lacrimal glands. Severe dry eye signs,including low tear volume, tear instability, inflammation of the ocular surface tissues and increased corneal staining are the main ocular manifestations of SS. Different diagnostic techniques have been developed to evaluate and diagnose dry eye syndrome; however, many of these test are invasive.

Infrared thermal images have been used in the last decades for measuring the ocular surface temperature, since its main advantage is being a non-invasive test. Another factor, which could influence the ocular surface temperature, is inflammation. o corroborate this relationship between ocular surface temperature and inflammation would be interested to measure another inflammatory molecules and ocular surface temperature in the same visit. Study was performed only in women patients with the aim to avoid any bias due to gender. Central corneal temperature in Sjögren Syndrome patients was higher than in healthy patients.