Changes in meibomian gland morphology and ocular higher-order aberrations in eyes with chalazion

Figures & data

Table 1 Tear film parameters for patients with a history of chalazion excision and control subjects

Parameters	Patients with a history of chalazion excision (n=7)	Controls (n=7)	P-value
Lid margin abnormality score (0–4)	2 (0–3)	0 (0–1)	0.092
Meibum grade (0–3)	1 (0–2)	1 (0–1)	0.54
Schirmer’s test value (mm)	15.7±11.5	26.4±8.1	0.070
BUT with fluorescein (seconds)	5.6±3.0	9.4±2.3	0.025*
Coma-like aberrations (μm)	0.114±0.042	0.120±0.019	0.61
Spherical-like aberrations (μm)	0.085±0.053	0.047±0.015	0.20
Trefoil aberrations (μm)	0.129±0.191	0.063±0.020	0.90
First total ocular HOAs	0.142±0.063	0.130±0.015	0.80
SI of total HOAs	0.0041±0.0048	−0.0012±0.0020	0.030*

Notes: Data are median (interquartile range) for ordinal variables and mean values ± standard deviations for continuous variables. P-values were determined with the Mann–Whitney U-test;

* P<0.05.

Abbreviations: BUT, breakup time; HOAs, higher-order aberrations; SI, stability index.

Figure 1 Representative images of an eye with a history of chalazion.

Notes: Images of meibomian gland structures in the upper (A, B) and lower (C, D) right eyelids of a 29-year-old man with a history of chalazion in the upper right eyelid were obtained with the noncontact meibography system attached to a slit-lamp (BG-4M) (A, C) and with the wavefront analyzer (KR-1W) equipped with the newly developed meibography program (B, D). Meibomian gland dropout was apparent in the upper eyelid, and meibomian gland shortening was detected in both the upper and lower eyelids. The quality of the images obtained with the two systems was similar.

Table 2 Ratio of meibomian gland area to total analysis area using noncontact meibography equipped in a wavefront analyzer and in a slit-lamp microscope

Eyelid	Ratio of meibomian gland area to total analysis area (%)		Mann–Whitney, U-test	Spearman’s correlation coefficient
	Wavefront analyzer (n=12) (mean ± SD)	Slit-lamp microscope (n=12) (mean ± SD)	P-value	ρ	P-value
Upper eyelid	45.2±9.5	48.7±7.2	0.064	0.636	0.026*
Lower eyelid	49.5±11.1	54.1±10.6	0.15	0.615	0.033*

Notes: P-values for two averages were evaluated with the Mann–Whitney U-test. Spearman’s correlation coefficient (ρ) and P-values were determined for the relation between the ratios of meibomian gland area to total analysis area in each eyelid;

* P<0.05.

Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

Table 3 Meiboscores (median [interquartile range]) and frequency of meibomian gland dropout or shortening in patients with a history of chalazion excision and control subjects

Parameters	Patients with a history of chalazion (n=7)	Controls (n=7)	P-value
Meiboscore (upper eyelid) (0–3)	2 (1–2)	0 (0–1)	0.008*
Meiboscore (lower eyelid) (0–3)	1 (0–1)	0 (0–0)	0.042*
Meiboscore (total) (0–6)	2 (2–3)	0 (0–1)	0.007*
Dropout	6 (86%)	1 (14%)	0.008*
Shortening	7 (100%)	2 (29%)	0.031*

Notes: P-values were determined with the Mann–Whitney U-test or Fisher’s exact test;

* P<0.05.

Figure 2 Sequential wavefront color-coded maps of total ocular HOAs in a control subject and a representative patient with a history of chalazion.

Notes: (A) A 43-year-old male control subject. The first total ocular HOA was 0.120. (B) A 41-year-old man with history of chalazia three times in the left eye. The first total ocular HOA was 0.155. The maps are shown for 1-second intervals together with changes in the simulated retinal images of a Landolt ring (optotype with logMAR value of +0.7).
Abbreviation: HOA, higher-order aberrations.

Figure 3 Sequential changes in total HOAs over 10 seconds after blinking and the corresponding linear regression curves for a control subject and a representative patient with a history of chalazion.

Notes: Spearman’s correlation coefficient (ρ) and corresponding P-values are shown. (A) A 43-year-old control male subject. The SI of the total HOAs over time was 0.0007. (B) A 41-year-old man with history of chalazia three times in the left eye. The SI of the total HOAs over time was 0.0109.
Abbreviations: HOAs, higher-order aberrations; SI, stability index.