Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jul 3;55(8):5046-53.
doi: 10.1167/iovs.14-14689.

Androgen deficiency and dry eye syndrome in the aging male

Patrick M Azcarate  1 , Vincent D Venincasa  1 , William Feuer  2 , Frank Stanczyk  3 , Andrew V Schally  4 , Anat Galor  1
Affiliations

Androgen deficiency and dry eye syndrome in the aging male

Patrick M Azcarate et al. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. .

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between androgen levels and subjective and objective measures of dry eye syndrome (DES).

Methods: A total of 263 male patients from the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center eye clinic aged ≥50 were recruited for this prospective cross-sectional study. Patients completed Dry Eye Questionnaire 5, underwent tear film evaluation, and had serum androgen levels measured. The correlations between androgen levels, DES composite scores, DES symptoms, and global, lipid, and aqueous tear film parameters were evaluated.

Results: Two hundred sixty-three patients with a mean age of 69 (50-95) were examined. There was no linear association between composite DES scores (generated using latent class analysis) and androgen levels. However, eyes with high DES scores (0.95-1.0) had higher levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (P = 0.03) and lower levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) (P = 0.02), androstenedione (A) (P = 0.02), and androstane-3α,17β-diol glucuronide (P = 0.03) compared to eyes with intermediate (0.05-0.95) or low (0-0.05) scores. There were no strong correlations between tear film measures and androgen levels. Regarding global parameters, a weak inverse correlation was found between corneal staining and A (r = -0.17, P = 0.009). For lipid parameters, a weak correlation existed between tear breakup time (TBUT) and A (r = 0.15, P = 0.02). When considering aqueous and lipid deficiency independently, the association between TBUT and A existed only with aqueous tear deficiency (r = 0.66, P = 0.002). Regarding aqueous parameters, a weak correlation existed between Schirmer test and DHEAS (r = 0.13, P = 0.047) and A (r = 0.21, P = 0.001).

Conclusions: There was a weak correlation between higher levels of androstenedione and healthier global, lipid, and aqueous tear film parameters.

Keywords: androgens; dry eye syndrome; meibomian gland.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Androstenedione levels and dry eye syndrome (measured by DEQ5) show no significant correlation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Androstenedione levels and tear breakup time show a positive, weak correlation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Androstenedione levels and Schirmer test show a positive, weak correlation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Foulks GN, Nichols KK, Bron AJ, Holland EJ, McDonald MB, Nelson JD. Improving awareness, identification, and management of meibomian gland dysfunction. Ophthalmology. 2012; 119: S1–S12 - PubMed
    1. Fiscella RG. Understanding dry eye disease: a managed care perspective. Am J Manag Care. 2011; 17 (suppl 16): S432–S439 - PubMed
    1. Schaumberg DA, Sullivan DA, Buring JE, Dana MR. Prevalence of dry eye syndrome among US women. Am J Ophthalmol. 2003; 136: 318–326 - PubMed
    1. Moss SE, Klein R, Klein BE. Prevalence of and risk factors for dry eye syndrome. Arch Ophthalmol. 2000; 118: 1264–1268 - PubMed
    1. Mertzanis P, Abetz L, Rajagopalan K, et al. The relative burden of dry eye in patients' lives: comparisons to a U.S. normative sample. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2005; 46: 46–50 - PubMed

Publication types