Background
This study was performed to investigate the association between symptoms and signs in patients with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD).
Methods
Data were obtained from 122 MGD patients who were recruited for intense pulsed light therapy from November 2017 to April 2018 and the severity of their symptoms and signs at baseline were observed and recorded. Spearman correlation analyses were performed to analyze the relationships between SPEED score and signs. Subjects were divided into different subgroups based on possible influencing factors, and the differences in symptoms and signs were compared between different subgroups. Then influencing factors were controlled by regression analysis to explore the relationship between symptoms and signs and the strong factors affecting symptoms and signs.
Results
Analysis of baseline data showed that SPEED scores were not correlated with TBUT, CFSS, MGYSS or any index of eyelid margin abnormality (p > 0.05). In addition, abnormalities of lid margins, including hyperemia, thickening, rounding, hyperkeratinization, and telangiectasia around orifices, were more likely to occur in older patients, menopausal patients, and patients living in northern China. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that there was still no correlation between symptoms and signs (p > 0.05) after adjusting for influencing factors. Further analysis suggested that each influencing factor has different effects on symptoms and signs, among which menopause affects the SPEED score (R = -4.112, p = 0.025), and age and region have significant effects on eyelid margin abnormalities.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the results demonstrated a poor correlation between symptoms and signs in MGD patients. Age, hormone, and a dry environment may influence the disease, which suggests that the severity of the disease needs to be comprehensively assessed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.