How is everyone dealing with these hot days of autumn? Well, we might have some good news. The LIME Working Group conducted its first (!!) international joint study (at 2 centers), and a manuscript describing this study has been accepted by Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. The paper has already been published and is available to readers around the world!

This paper describes 3 novel findings:

1. Together, the color of the interference pattern produced by DR-1α and the non-invasive breakup time (NIBUT) revealed a balance between the lipid layer and the aqueous layer in tear film! → This finding is linked to the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of dry eye
2. The color of the interference pattern produced by DR-1α and the classification of NIBUT were examined by 3 Japanese ophthalmologists and 2 Korean ophthalmologists and their findings were verified by 2 individuals who were not ophthalmologists. Results showed that the classification system is easy to use and reliable! → This means that anyone can readily use the classification system we developed
3. Evidence of two-way homeostasis of tear film → A previous study we conducted (described in Ophthalmology) only found evidence of a one-way compensatory response in tear film, with water compensating for a lack of lipids. However, this new study involved measurement of the thickness of the lipid layer with the LipiView and the Schirmer test, and results yielded evidence of a two-way compensatory response in tear film.

We used highly descriptive designations to describe the classification of interference patterns produced by DR-1α so that everyone could envision what we were talking about:

Normal eye	Monotonous gray interference color	NIBUT ≥ 5 s	Pearl-like appearance
Aqueous-deficient dry eye	Multi-color interference color	NIBUT < 5 s	Jupiter-like appearance
Evaporative dry eye	A gray, amorphous pattern	NIBUT < 5 s	Crystal-like appearance