Article Text
Research Article
Fluid uptake in Schirmer papers and its relevance to their employment in tear collection for lysozyme tests.
Abstract
An investigation was undertaken into the relationship between the wet length of a standard Schirmer paper and the fluid weight in the 5 mm tip after a 5-minute moistening period. Immediate weighing after moistening showed that it is unreliable to infer a particular fluid weight in the 5 mm tip from a known wet length, and it is concluded that such papers will lead to error in lysozyme tests. If the papers are inserted for a period within sealed envelopes, there is found to be a close relationship between wet length and fluid weight in the tip, the papers reaching a stable state at 5 hours. Soaked Schirmer papers were shown to given particularly inconsistent results.