Table 3.
Results of the analysis comparing efficacy between the treatments.
| Change from baseline to 3 months | Change from baseline to 6 months | Change from 3 to 6 months | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blephasteam | TheraPearl | p-value | Blephasteam | TheraPearl | p-value | Blephasteam | TheraPearl | p-value | |
| OSDI | −14.0 (−18.6, −9.4) | −11.1 (−16.2, −6.1) | 0.49 | −13.7 (−19.4, −7.9) | −12.6 (−18.1, −7.2) | 0.71 | −0.7 (−5.5, 4.1) | −0.12 (−3.7, 3.5) | 0.92 |
| FBUT (s) | 2.5 (1.6, 3.4) | 2.7 (1.5, 3.9) | 0.80 | 3.9 (2.8, 5.1) | 2.6 (1.4, 3.8) | 0.11 | 0.8 (−0.4, 1.9) | 0.9 (0.0, 1.7) | 0.89 |
| OSS† | 0 (−0.5, 1) | −1 (−1.5, −1) | 0.01** | −1 (−1.5, 0.5) | 0 (−1, 1) | 0.24 | −1 (−1.5, 0) | 1.5 (1, 2.5) | < 0.01** |
| Schirmer’s test (mm/5 min) | 0.14 (−2.3, 2.6) | 0.14 (−1.5, 1.8) | 0.99 | 0.43 (−1.8, 2.6) | 0.72 (−1.2, 2.7) | 0.84 | 0.69 (−1.7, 3.0) | 2.0 (0.3, 3.9) | 0.36 |
| MQ† | −2.5 (−3.5, −1) | −2 (−3, −0.5) | 0.47 | −3 (−4.5, −1.5) | −2 (−3.5, −0.5) | 0.63 | −1 (−2, 0) | −1 (−2, 0.5) | 0.72 |
| ME† | −1.5 (−1.5, −1) | −1 (−1.5, −1) | 0.98 | −1.5 (−2, −1.5) | −1.5 (−2, −1) | 0.29 | −1 (−1.5, −1) | −1 (−1, 0) | 0.50 |
Mean changes between time points were reported preceding 95% confidence intervals in parentheses.
†Median changes were reported.
**p < 0.05, the negative significant value indicates TheraPearl decreased OSS by 1 more than Blephasteam and vice versa at 6 months.
OSDI ocular surface disease index measured on a scale from 0 to 100, FBUT fluorescein breakup time measured in seconds, OSS ocular surface staining scored with the Oxford grading scheme from 0 to 1542, MQ meibomian quality scored on a scale from 0 to 24, ME meibomian expressibility scored on a scale from 0 to 3.