The evaluation of meibomian gland function, morphology and related medical history in Asian adult blepharokeratoconjunctivitis patients.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the meibomian gland function, morphology and the related medical history of patients with blepharokeratoconjunctivitis (BKC) in comparison with healthy population and meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD)-induced evaporative dry eye (EDE) patients.


METHODS
Twenty-two eyes of 22 Asian adult patients with BKC were enrolled as the BKC group. Healthy volunteers and MGD-induced EDE patients were recruited in a 1:1 ratio and were matched in age, and the gender compositions of the three groups were also comparable. Examinations included meibum quality, meibomian gland expressibility, meibomian gland dropout and relevant ocular surface tests. Related medical history was recorded.


RESULTS
The BKC group had higher incidences of chalazion (OR 4.59, 95% CI 1.29-16.33) and eyelid surgery (OR 4.91, 95% CI 1.33-18.21) than the control group (chalazion, p = 0.007; eyelid surgery, p < 0.001) and EDE group (chalazion, p = 0.031; eyelid surgery, p = 0.005) had. All clinical indexes were worse in the BKC group than in the control group (all p < 0.05). The EDE group had better meibum quality (p = 0.049) and less meibomian gland dropouts (all p < 0.05) than the BKC group. The dropouts of the BKC group were the highest among the three groups, and the distribution over the tarsal plate was even in the BKC group (all p > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with BKC had worse meibomian gland function, poorer morphology and a higher rate of medical histories related to the meibomian gland than the healthy population. The BKC clinical features of meibum quality and meibomian gland dropout were different from other MGD diseases.
Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, The Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.|Key Laboratory of Myopia, Ministry of Health, Shanghai, China.
Yue
Y
Yin
Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, The Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.|Key Laboratory of Myopia, Ministry of Health, Shanghai, China.
Lan
L
Gong
D000328:Adult; D001762:Blepharitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003231:Conjunctivitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007634:Keratitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking; D008537:Meibomian Glands / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
blepharokeratoconjunctivitis; meibomian gland dropout; meibomian gland dysfunction; meibum quality