| In Vivo Human Lacrimal Gland Imaging Using an Ultrasound Biomicroscopy |
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Chanjoon Park, Da Ran Kim, Young Chae Yoon, Soonwon Yang, Woong-Joo Whang, Yong-Soo Byun, Hyung Bin Hwang, Kyung Sun Na, Hyun Soo Lee, So Hyang Chung, Eun Chul Kim, Yang Kyung Cho, Hyun Seung Kim, Hosik Hwang |
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Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea |
Correspondence:
Hosik Hwang, Tel: +82-2-3779-1025, Fax: +82-2-761-6869,
Email: huanghs@hanmail.net
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Received: 26 November 2023 • Revised: 10 April 2024 • Accepted: 24 April 2024 |
| Abstract |
Purpose
In the present study, we introduce human lacrimal gland imaging using an ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) with a soft cover and show their findings
Methods
The representative UBM findings of palpebral lobes in seven subjects (4 with non-Sjögren dry eye syndrome, 1 with Sjögren syndrome, and 2 healthy subjects) were described in this study. To prolapse the palpebral lobe, the examiner pulled the temporal part of the upper eyelid in the superotemporal direction and directed the subject to look in the inferonasal direction. We scanned the palpebral lobes longitudinally and transversely using UBM. We used an Aviso UBM (Quantel Medical, Clermont-Ferrand, France) with a 50 MHz linear probe and ClearScan.
Results
In UBM of two healthy subjects, the echogenicity of the lacrimal gland was lower than that of the sclera and homogeneous. But, the parenchyma of a patient with Sjögren dry eye syndrome was quite inhomogeneous compared to the healthy subjects. In two patients with dry eye syndrome, we were able to observe some lobules in the parenchyma. We could find excretory ducts running parallel at the surface of the longitudinal section in some subjects. In the longitudinal UBM scan of a subject, we observed a tubular structure at a depth of 1500 µm that was considered a blood vessel. It ran from the superonasal to the inferotemporal direction. In a subject, we observed a large cyst beneath the conjunctiva.
Conclusions
Lacrimal gland imaging using UBM has both advantages of OCT and sonography, and could be useful for evaluating dry eye syndrome. |
| Key Words:
Lacrimal gland, Ultrasound biomicroscopy, Parenchyma, Lobules, Excretory ducts |
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