Abstract:

Objective To investigate the value of shear wave elastography（SWE）in diagnosing lacrimalgland lesions in patients with dry eyes. Methods Forty⁃six patients diagnosed with dry eyes in the Department ofOphthalmology of our hospital from October 2019 to October 2020 were assigned as the dry eyes group，and fifty⁃nine people with normal physical examinations during the same period as the control group. The size，shape andinternal echo of lacrimal glands were measured by two⁃dimensionalultrasounds. The mean elastic modulus（Emean）of lacrimal glands was obtained by SWE. The receiver operating characteristic curve（ROC）was drawn. Results The shapes of lacrimal glands in the dry eyes group and the control group were both triangular⁃like by the twodimensionalultrasounds. There was no significant difference in the sizes of lacrimal glands between the two groups（P > 0.05）. The internal echoes of the lacrimal glands in the dry eyes group was mostly inhomogeneous，and thosein the control group were homogeneous and hypoechoic. The Emean of the lacrimal glands in the dry eyes group wassignificantly larger than that in the control group［（20.02 ± 6.28）kPavs.（10.29 ± 2.50）kPa，P < 0.05］. The areaunder ROC curve was 0.939 and the best cutoff value was 13.17 kPa. Conclusion SWE can quantitatively evaluatethe stiffness of lacrimal glands in patients with dry eyes. It has high diagnostic value in detecting lacrimal glandlesions in patients with dry eyes，and therefore it can provide a new auxiliary examination modality for clinical diag⁃nosis of dry eyes.

Key words:

dry eye, lacrimal gland, ultrasound, shear wave elastography