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. 2016 Apr 5;11(4):e0152936.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152936. eCollection 2016.

Reducing Short-Wavelength Blue Light in Dry Eye Patients with Unstable Tear Film Improves Performance on Tests of Visual Acuity

Minako Kaido  1   2 , Ikuko Toda  3 , Tomoo Oobayashi  3 , Motoko Kawashima  1 , Yusaku Katada  1 , Kazuo Tsubota  1
Affiliations

Reducing Short-Wavelength Blue Light in Dry Eye Patients with Unstable Tear Film Improves Performance on Tests of Visual Acuity

Minako Kaido et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate whether suppression of blue light can improve visual function in patients with short tear break up time (BUT) dry eye (DE).

Methods: Twenty-two patients with short BUT DE (10 men, 12 women; mean age, 32.4 ± 6.4 years; age range, 23-43 years) and 18 healthy controls (10 men, 8 women; mean age, 30.1 ± 7.4 years; age range, 20-49 years) underwent functional visual acuity (VA) examinations with and without wearing eyeglasses with 50% blue light blocked lenses. The functional VA parameters were starting VA, functional VA, and visual maintenance ratio.

Results: The baseline mean values (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution, logMAR) of functional VA and the visual maintenance ratio were significantly worse in the DE patients than in the controls (P < 0.05), while no significant difference was observed in the baseline starting VA (P > 0.05). The DE patients had significant improvement in mean functional VA and visual maintenance ratio while wearing the glasses (P < 0.05), while there were no significant changes with and without the glasses in the control group (P > 0.05).

Conclusions: Protecting the eyes from short-wavelength blue light may help to ameliorate visual impairment associated with tear instability in patients with DE. This finding represents a new concept, which is that the blue light exposure might be harmful to visual function in patients with short BUT DE.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: Drs. Kazuo Tsubota and Minako Kaido hold patent rights for the method and apparatus used for the measurement of functional visual acuity (US patent no: 7470026) and receive royalties for it from Kowa Co., Ltd. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The other authors have no affiliation with any corporation.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Spectacles with 50% blue light blocked lenses and spectral transmittance curve.
a: Spectacles with 50% blue light blocked lenses. b: Spectral transmittance curve.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Functional visual acuity (VA) parameters with and without blue light blocked glasses.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Rayleigh scattering phenomenon.
a. The red light passes through the skim milk in a glass. b. The blue light scatters and little of it passes through the skim milk in a glass.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Mechanism of the effect of the blue light blocked lens on visual function.
Red and blue lines represent red and blue light, respectively. a. Unstable tear film without blue light blocked lens. The blue light is scattering. b. Unstable tear film with blue light blocked lens. The lens is blocking the blue light.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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