Purpose: To determine the effect of corneal drying on the outcome of optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Design: Cohort study.
Participants: Seventeen normal participants (mean age, 39+/-12 years).
Methods: Subjects underwent a series of peripapillary circular StratusOCT scans (version 3.0; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA) in a randomly selected eye. Baseline scan sets were acquired, and thereafter, blinking was prevented by taping the eyelid. Eyelid taping was immediately followed by 6 to 8 serial scan sets, each separated by 20 seconds. After removing the eyelid tape, 3 additional scans were acquired at 1, 2, and 4 minutes of blinking freely.
Main outcome measures: The analyzed outcome measures were scan quality as defined by signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and signal strength (SS) provided by the built-in OCT software and mean nerve fiber layer (NFL) thickness.
Results: Significant reductions in SNR, SS, and NFL were noted at each scanning point in the drying phase (for each, P<0.015, paired t test) except for NFL thickness measurements acquired at 140 and 160 seconds. The reduction in NFL thickness exceeded the 95% confidence limit of the reported reproducibility error of StratusOCT after 15 seconds of corneal drying. After 1 and 2 minutes of blinking freely, there was still a significant reduction in NFL thickness compared with the baseline value, which was no longer evident at the 4-minute scan.
Conclusions: Corneal dryness affects OCT scan quality and measured NFL thickness after a short exposure time. It is recommended to instruct those who are scanned to blink frequently or to instill artificial tears.