The LC-MS/MS method we developed was employed for the analysis of tear samples collected on Schirmer paper strips in a total of 27 people divided in 14 DED female patients and 13 healthy control females. Since about the 25% of tears samples had steroid concentration below our defined LLOQ, with the exception for CORT and PROG, and considering the limited number of patients for this first application, we decided to express our data in term of response (analyte peak area/internal standard peak area) for all the seven steroids.