Schirmer's test

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Eye

Shirmers test

Overview

Risks

Results

Schirmer's test

Alternative Names:

Tear test; Tearing test; Dry eye test

Normal Values:

A negative test result (more than 10 mm of moisture on the filter paper in 5 minutes) is normal. Both eyes normally secrete the same amount of tears.

What abnormal results mean:

Dry eyes can occur from conditions such as:

Aging
Corneal ulcers and infections
Eye infections (for example, conjunctivitis )
Vitamin A deficiency
Sjogren's syndrome
Secondary tearing deficiency (associated with disorders such as - lymphoma, leukemia, and rheumatoid arthritis)
Previous eyelid or facial surgery
Climate

The inability of tears to drain into the nose can occur with:

Some eye infections
Blockage of the tear duct

Review Date: 4/8/2005
Reviewed By: Raymond S. Douglas, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Ophthalmology, UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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