Clinical relationship of meibometry with ocular symptoms and tear film stability.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the relationship between meibometry with both ocular symptoms and tear film stability by: (1) to find out whether meibometry is able to differentiate between dry eye symptomatic and asymptomatic subjects classified by standardized dry eye questionnaires (OSDI and McMonnies), and (2) to assess the clinical relationship between meibometry with both tear break-up time (BUT) and maximum blink interval (MBI).

METHODS: 140 Patients were recruited for the study. Using Meibometer MB550, five curves were generated for each patient. Subjects performed OSDI and McMonnies questionnaires and were stratified following a two- and a three-subgroup stratification for each questionnaire. BUT/MBI were repeated three times (by video recordings), and they were determined by counting their frames.

RESULTS: Subjects grouped by OSDI showed a trend to present lower meibometry values as the OSDI score were higher (ANOVA, p≤0.044). For McMonnies questionnaire this was only true for the two-subgroup stratification (ANOVA, p=0.04), but not for three-subgroup stratification (one-way ANOVA, p=0.30). On the other hand, meibometry values showed a statistical correlation with both BUT (r=0.305, p<0.001) and MBI (r=0.265, p<0.001). When the sample was divided in three groups regarding BUT value (≤5s, between 5 and 10s and≥10s), significant differences of meibometry values were found between BUT subgroups (p=0.008).

CONCLUSION: Meibometer MB550 can discriminate asymptomatic from dry eye symptomatic patients. Furthermore, there is a relationship between meibometry and the tear film stability.