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
. 2023 Sep;43(9):3207-3218.
doi: 10.1007/s10792-023-02721-2. Epub 2023 May 4.

Association of meibomian gland morphology with orifice plugging and lid margin thickening in meibomian gland dysfunction patients

Jun Feng #  1 , Jingyi Wang #  1 , Binge Wu  2 , Qiyan Shao  2 , Yunxiao Zang  1 , Kai Cao  1 , Lei Tian  1 , Ying Jie  3
Affiliations

Association of meibomian gland morphology with orifice plugging and lid margin thickening in meibomian gland dysfunction patients

Jun Feng et al. Int Ophthalmol. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: We sought to investigate the association of meibomian gland morphology with lid margin abnormalities in patients with meibomian gland dysfunction.

Methods: This retrospective study included 368 eyes of 184 patients. Meibography was used to evaluate meibomian gland (MG) morphological features, such as dropout, distortion, thickened ratio and thinned ratio. Lid margin photography was used to evaluate lid margin abnormalities including orifice plugging, vascularity, irregularity and thickening. The association between MG morphological features and lid margin abnormalities was analyzed using a mixed linear model.

Results: The study found a positive correlation between plugging of gland orifices grade and MG dropout grade in both the upper lids (B = 0.40, p = 0.007) and the lower lids (B = 0.55, p = 0.001). Plugging of gland orifices grade was also positively correlated to MG distortion grade in the upper lids (B = 0.75, p = 0.006). In the upper lids, MG thickened ratio increased first (B = 0.21, p = 0.003) and then decreased (B = - 0.14, p = 0.010) with a higher lid margin thickening grade. MG thinned ratio was negatively correlated with lid margin thickening (B = - 0.14, p = 0.002, B = - 0.13, p = 0.007). MG distortion grade decreased with lid margin thickening (B = - 0.61, p = 0.012).

Conclusion: Orifice plugging was correlated to meibomian gland distortion and dropout. Lid margin thickening was associated with meibomian gland thickened ratio, thinned ratio, and distortion. The study also suggested that distorted and thinned glands may be transitional phases between thickened glands and glands dropout.

Keywords: Lid margin; Meibography; Meibomian gland dropout; Meibomian gland dysfunction.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Nelson JD, Shimazaki J, Benitez-del-Castillo JM et al (2011) The international workshop on meibomian gland dysfunction: report of the definition and classification subcommittee. Investig Opthalmology Vis Sci 52:1930. https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.10-6997b - DOI
    1. Craig JP, Nichols KK, Akpek EK et al (2017) TFOS DEWS II definition and classification report. Ocul Surf 15:276–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtos.2017.05.008 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nichols KK, Foulks GN, Bron AJ et al (2011) The international workshop on meibomian gland dysfunction: executive summary. Investig Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52:1922–1929. https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.10-6997a - DOI
    1. Lin P-Y, Tsai S-Y, Cheng C-Y et al (2003) Prevalence of dry eye among an elderly Chinese population in Taiwan. Ophthalmology 110:1096–1101. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0161-6420(03)00262-8 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Siak JJK, Tong L, Wong WL et al (2012) Prevalence and risk factors of meibomian gland dysfunction: the Singapore malay eye study. Cornea 31:1223–1228. https://doi.org/10.1097/ICO.0b013e31823f0977 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources