The Jones IE test: cobalt blue endoscopic primary dye test of lacrimal excretory function.

A cobalt blue filter adapter was constructed to fit between a rigid nasal endoscope and its halogen light source. Flooding the nasal cavity with the blue light illuminates the fluorescein-stained tears for more accurate examination of lacrimal function. We call our protocol the Jones IE test and used this new technique to examine 99 nasolacrimal systems of epiphora patients over a 15-month period. The results of this study show a six-fold increase in the ability of the Jones IE test to detect fluorescein dye within the nasal cavity over the conventional Jones I test.