活体共聚焦显微镜在干眼患者眼表形态观察中的应用

Application of in vivo confocal microscopy to observe ocular surface morphology in dry eye patients

干眼症是最常见的眼部疾患之一.尽管在过去的几年中,与其相关的基础与临床研究获得了不少进展,但其病理生理机制仍不十分明确.活体共聚焦显微镜是一种非侵入性的眼部成像技术,它使得人们在细胞水平对眼表上皮细胞、免疫及炎症细胞、角膜神经、角膜基质细胞以及睑板腺结构进行观察成为可能.因此,它可以帮助人们更好地理解干眼症的发病机制以及病理生理,从而协助该病的诊断和治疗.使用共聚焦显微镜可对干眼相关的眼表结构作出评估,并对其改变进行量化,这样使得疾病在早期就能得到识别,可对患者进行分层治疗.此外,动态地观察眼表共聚焦图像的变化还可以对干眼症的临床治疗效果进行监测,利于及时调整治疗方案,并较为准确地评估预后.

Dry eye syndrome is one of the most common ocular disorders.Although significant advances in both basic and clinical research have been made over the past years,the pathophysiological mechanisms of dry eye syndrome still need further clarification.In vivo confocal microscopy is a noninvasive ocular imaging tool that allows the observation of ocular surface epithelial cells,immune and inflammatory cells,corneal nerves,keratocytes,and meibomian gland structures on a cellular level.Therefore,it could help improve understanding of the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of the dry eye syndrome.Ocular surface structures in dry eye-related conditions could be assessed and alterations could be quantified using in vivo confocal microscopy,and it may enable the disease to be detected at much earlier stages and allow stratification of patients for clinical therapies.Furthermore,dynamic observation of the changes in confocal images could also help monitor the efficacy of treatment strategies,thus tailoring treatment in a timely manner and evaluating the prognoses more accurately.