Evaluation of meibography scores as age increases in Hispanic patients

Abstract

Purpose : To describe the meibography scores according to age in Hispanic population

Methods : Retrospective observational case series. A sample of 192 records from patients referred to the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Service from Ophthalmology Institute Hospital Zambrano Hellion, Tecnologico de Monterrey from January 2020 to December 2020. Patients diagnosed with dry eye were included in the study. Meibography was performed using the OCULUS Keratograph 5M. The meibography scale used measured the percentage of gland dropout from a score of 0 (No gland dropout) to 3 (more than 66% gland dropout). A statistical analysis between the score and the patients age followed.

Results : From the entire study sample, a random sample of 40 patients (80 eyes) was included. 26 (65%) were female and 14 (35%) were male. The age range was from 14-87 years with an average of 45.3 years. The lowest meibography score reported was 0 and the highest 3. The mean of both eyes was calculated for each patient and then compared to their age. An average of 1.47 ± 0.72 was calculated in those younger than 65 years and an average of 2.9 ± 0.22 in those 65 years or older. A statistically significant (p< 0.05) moderate positive correlation (r= 0.39) between age and a worse score in the meibography was found.

Conclusions : We found that meibography scores tend to get worse with the passage of time. Such a different mean meibography score between those younger than 65 years and those older, may suggest that changes may also accelerate after certain age. A larger sample size could increase the Pearson coefficient.

This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.