Flow Evaporimeter To Assess Evaporative Resistance of Human Tear-Film Lipid Layer

A novel in vivo flow evaporimeter is developed to measure human tear-evaporation rates. The flow evaporimeter relies on a well-defined flow field to the eye with known and adjustable flow rates and relative humidities, and quantitatively reproduces evaporation rates for pure water. Mass-transfer ana...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIndustrial & engineering chemistry research Vol. 53; no. 47; pp. 18130 - 18139
Main Authors Peng, C.-C, Cerretani, C, Li, Y, Bowers, S, Shahsavarani, S, Lin, M. C, Radke, C. J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Chemical Society 26.11.2014
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Subjects
atmospheric chemistry
Biomedical materials
evaporation
Evaporation rate
Human
humidity
In vivo testing
In vivo tests
layers
Lipids
Surgical implants
Tearing
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Summary:A novel in vivo flow evaporimeter is developed to measure human tear-evaporation rates. The flow evaporimeter relies on a well-defined flow field to the eye with known and adjustable flow rates and relative humidities, and quantitatively reproduces evaporation rates for pure water. Mass-transfer analysis of the evaporimeter data elucidates, for the first time, the resistance of the human tear-film lipid layer (TFLL) toward minimizing tear loss to the environment. A pilot study on human subjects validates the feasibility of the flow evaporimeter to obtain the tear-film evaporation rates in vivo. Resistance of the TFLL against tear evaporation is found subject specific. Our flow evaporimeter offers an accurate, safe, and convenient diagnostic tool for clinical evaluation of dry-eye-related maladies.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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content type line 23
AC02-05CH11231
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
ISSN:0888-5885
1520-5045
DOI:10.1021/ie5030497