Clinical grading of corneal staining of non-contact lens wearers

To distinguish normal from pathological corneal fluorescein staining requir es knowledge of background levels of staining among otherwise healthy indiv iduals. Corneal staining of 102 non-contact lens wearing subjects was asses sed using a photographic grading scale that uses a generic (0 to 4) scale t o score corneal staining. Some degree of corneal staining was found on 79% of the corneas. Low inter-observer variability suggests that the corneal st aining grading scale can be used successfully with decimal rather than inte ger scale increments. (C) 2000 The College of Optometrists. Published by El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.