Table 3.

Correlation between tear inflammatory molecules and clinical parameters in MGD-related EDE patients

Inflammatory molecules	Meniscus height	Schirmer I test	TBUT	Bulbar Redness	Meibography score	OSDI
ICAM-1
r	− 0.203	− 0.215	− 0.131	0.199	0.349	0.069
P value	0.166	0.156	0.385	0.266	0.03	0.64
IFN-γ
r	− 0.085	− 0.139	− 0.313	0.142	0.246	− 0.183
P value	0.565	0.362	0.034	0.429	0.131	0.213
IL-8
r	− 0.171	− 0.369	− 0.106	0.3	0.233	− 0.222
P value	0.244	0.013	0.483	0.09	0.153	0.129
IL-1α
r	− 0.057	− 0.07	− 0.161	0.203	0.115	− 0.34
P value	0.776	0.739	0.421	0.405	0.609	0.082
IL-6
r	− 0.092	− 0.38	0.041	0.227	0.323	− 0.051
P value	0.533	0.01	0.786	0.203	0.045	0.729
TNF-α
r	0.018	− 0.241	− 0.277	0.246	0.238	− 0.097
P value	0.902	0.11	0.062	0.167	0.145	0.513
IL-12
r	− 0.14	− 0.183	0.119	0.017	0.142	− 0.244
P value	0.344	0.229	0.432	0.925	0.387	0.095

IFN interferon, IL interleukin, TNF tumor necrosis factor, ICAM intercellular cell adhesion molecule, OSDI Ocular Surface Disease Index (grade estimated by the Oxford scheme), TBUT tear breakup time, MGD meibomian gland dysfunction, EDE evaporative dry eye. Spearman correlation coefficient (r) was used to analyze the associations between variables

Significant correlations are in bold font