A review of the Schirmer tear test in guinea pigs

Abstract

The kinetics of strip wetting of standard and modified Schirmer strips are exactly similar and clearly show an initial rapid absorption rate of fluid followed by a moderate absorption rate as the rate of absorption slows down. The results of the study show that a modified Schirmer strip can be successfully used to measure tear production in guinea pigs and small rodents. The STTI and modified STTI measurements found in this study are broadly in line with similar findings by others. The modified strips can provide a greater degree of accuracy when performing STT measurements in small rodents. A commercially available modified strip would be preferable to manually modified strips as it would eliminate the variability factor and would be of great benefit to assist with ocular testing of small rodents.