Impression cytology implicates cell autophagy in aqueous deficiency dry eye.

Purpose: Impression cytology in combination with a cell autophagy marker was used to demonstrate the utility of a novel frozen section technique, to assess the health of the ocular surface, as well as to correlate autophagic cell death with the commonly used clinical tests for dry eye.

Methods: Female patients over the age of 18 years who attended an outpatient ophthalmology clinic were invited to participate. Schirmer's test, tear film break-up time and the ocular surface disease index questionnaire were used as objective and subjective clinical tests for dry eye.