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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Ocul Surf. 2020 Aug 25;18(4):761–769. doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2020.07.014

Table 4.

Association of Meibomian gland features with tear break-up time in upper and lower lids

Upper Lid
Lower Lid
Tear Break Up Time (TBUT)
  Meibomian gland feature Total n=394 <2* (Bad) n=141 >2 - <3.2 n=136 >=3.2 (Good) n=117 ^PMC ** p-value Total n=498 <2 (Bad) n=163 >2 - <3.2 n=172 >= 3.2 (Good) n=163 ** p-value ^PMC
Total, mean (SD) 8.98 (2.82) 8.65 9.31 8.98 0.95 0.86 7.20 (1.89) 7.24 7.22 7.14 0.23 0.93
Distorted, mean (SD) 4.20 (2.28) 3.91 4.39 4.32 0.95 0.66 1.56 (1.45) 1.42 1.59 1.68 0.93 0.93
Tortuous, mean (SD) 0.83 (1.20) 0.58 0.83 1.14 0.01 <0.001 0.06 (0.30) 0.05 0.03 0.11 0.14 0.93
Hooked, mean (SD) 0.36 (0.71) 0.28 0.32 0.51 0.95 0.14 0.05 (0.26) 0.02 0.03 0.10 0.14 0.93
Short, mean (SD) 2.97 (2.22) 2.85 3.22 2.83 0.95 0.69 1.66 (1.78) 1.72 1.58 1.67 0.30 0.93
Thick, mean (SD) 0.16 (0.57) 0.15 0.22 0.12 0.95 0.30 0.03 (0.20) 0.02 0.01 0.05 · ·
Thin, mean (SD) 0.33 (0.69) 0.22 0.42 0.37 0.28 0.02 0.08 (0.34) 0.06 0.05 0.12 0.20 0.93
Overlapping, mean (SD) 0.46 (0.71) 0.43 0.46 0.51 0.95 0.83 0.06 (0.25) 0.07 0.05 0.05 0.09 0.93
Ghost, mean (SD) 0.86 (1.72) 0.80 0.91 0.86 0.95 0.92 0.55 (1.37) 0.68 0.38 0.60 0.60 0.93
Dropout gland, mean (SD) 0.07 (0.45) 0.08 0.04 0.08 0.95 0.95 0.17 (0.54) 0.21 0.22 0.09 0.25 0.93
Tadpoling, n(%) 24 (6%) (5%) (6%) (8%) 0.95 0.12 5 (1%) (1%) (1%) (1%) · ·
Abnormal gap, n(%) 106 (27%) (27%) (24%) (30%) 0.95 0.18 2 (0%) (0%) (1%) (1%) · ·
No extension to lid margin, n(%) 16 (4%) (3%) (5%) (4%) 0.95 0.72 27 (5%) (6%) (6%) (4%) 0.50 0.93
Fluffy areas, n(%) 43 (11%) (9%) (8%) (16%) 0.48 0.03 32 (6%) (6%) (5%) (9%) 0.10 0.93
Composite score, mean (SD) 23.7 (10.0) 21.90 23.29 26.26 0.02 0.001 13.1 (8.4) 13.64 12.79 12.93 0.81 0.93
Percent dropout area, mean (SD)
Including ghost glands and fluffy areas 0.23 (0.20) 0.24 0.21 0.23 0.95 0.29 0.32 (0.19) 0.34 0.30 0.33 0.39 0.93
Excluding ghost glands and fluffy areas 0.11 (0.11) 0.12 0.11 0.10 0.95 0.85 0.19 (0.14) 0.20 0.18 0.19 0.59 0.93
*

Seconds

**

Adjusted for age and sex; p-values not adjusted for multiple comparisons.

^

Adjusted for multiple comparisons