Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is a common disease in ophthalmic clinic. This study aimed to explore ocular
Demodex
infestation on the microstructure changes of the meibomian glands (MGs) in patients with MGD by in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM).
We retrospectively reviewed 103 eyes of 52 patients with MGD and 62 eyes of 31 non-MGD patients. All enrolled patients underwent IVCM examination. The following IVCM parameters were recorded: the MG acinar density (MAD), MG acinar longest diameter (MALD), MG acinar shortest diameter (MASD), MG orifice area (MOA), severity of MG fibrosis (MF), MG acinar irregularity (MAI), meibum secretion reflectivity (MSR), inhomogeneous appearance of walls of acinar units (AWI) and periglandular interstices of acinar units (API), and the number of
Demodex
.
The positive rate of
Demodex
infestation in MGDs was 89.32%, and statistically higher than control group (controls;
P
< .001). All parameters showed statistically significant differences between MGDs and controls (
P
< .001), and
Demodex-
negative group and
Demodex-
positive group (
P
< .05) in both MGDs and controls, except MAD (
P
= .826) in controls. The number of
Demodex
was positively correlated with MALD, MASD, MF, MAI, MSR, AWI, and API in MGDs and controls (
P
< .05), and negatively correlated with MAD and MOA in MGDs (
P
< .05). MOA showed a strong significant correlation with the number of
Demodex
in controls (
P
< .001), whereas there was no significant difference between the number of
Demodex
and the MAD in controls (
P
= .448).
Demodex
can cause microstructural changes of MGs, which can cause or aggravate MGD, and the more the number of
Demodex
infestation, the more serious the structural damage.
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