Changes of the Meibomian Gland According to Age in the Normal Korean Population

Joo Hyun Kim; Jin Woo Ro; Kayoung Yi; Dong Gyu Choi; Ha Kyoung Kim; Joon Young Hyon; Won Ryang Wee; Young Joo Shin

doi:10.3341/jkos.2015.56.1.13

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Kim, Ro, Yi, Choi, Kim, Hyon, Wee, and Shin: Changes of the Meibomian Gland According to Age in the Normal Korean Population

Original Article

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2015;56(1):13-18.

Published online: 6 September 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2015.56.1.13

Changes of the Meibomian Gland According to Age in the Normal Korean Population

Joo Hyun Kim, MD¹, Jin Woo Ro, MD¹, Kayoung Yi, MD, PhD¹, Dong Gyu Choi, MD, PhD¹, Ha Kyoung Kim, MD, PhD¹, Joon Young Hyon, MD, PhD^2,³, Won Ryang Wee, MD, PhD³, Young Joo Shin, MD, PhD^1,

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

²Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea

³Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Address reprint requests to Young Joo Shin, MD, PhD, Department of Ophthalmology, Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, #1 Singil-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul 150-950, Korea, Tel: 82-2-829-5193, Fax: 82-2-848-4638 E-mail: schinn@hanmail.net

Received 25 July 201231 October 2012 Accepted 10 December 2014

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the changes in meibomian glands associated with aging in a normal Korean population and to estimate the differences between the upper and lower eyelid in each age group.

Methods

We performed meibography on adult subjects using an infrared charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. Each eyelid was scored based on the loss of meibomian glands, and the meiboscores of the upper and lower eyelids were summed to obtain a score for each eye. Meiboscores were evaluated according to age, sex, and upper and lower eyelid meiboscores in each age group.

Results

One hundred seventeen eyes of 117 people were enrolled in this study. The study subjects had an average age of 50.4 ± 19.1 years (range, 20-92; male, 56; female, 61). There was a significant positive correlation between age and total meiboscore, upper and lower eyelid meiboscore (r = 0.578, p < 0.001; r = 0.550, p < 0.001; r = 0.524, p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in the meiboscores of the upper and lower eyelids in any age group, though meiboscores were significantly higher since 40 year-old group than 20 year-old group (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Based on noncontact meibography in normal adult eyes, the authors concluded that prevalence of changes in the meibomian glands was about 60% and changes in meibomian glands increase with age.

Keywords: Meibomian gland, Meibomography, Meiboscore

References

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Figure 1.

Photos demonstrating representative cases of each meibography grade. Meibomian glands was scored using meiboscore: (A) Grade 0, no meibomian gland dropout. (B) Grade 1, meibomian gland dropout <1/3 of total meibomian glands. (C) Grade 2, meibomian gland dropout in more than 1/3 and less than 2/3 of the total meibomian glands. (D) Grade 3, meibomian gland dropout >2/3 of the total meibomian glands. Arrows indicate meibomian dropout. Meiboscores for the upper and lower eyelids were summed to obtain a score for each eye.

Figure 2.

Distribution and change of total meiboscore. There was a significant positive correlation between age and total meiboscore (r = 0.578; p < 0.001, Spearman’s correlation analysis).

Figure 3.

The graph showing meiboscore changes according to age. There were significant difference between the groups (p < 0.001, Kruskall-Wallis test). After 40 years of age, meiboscores were significantly higher than the 20 to 29 year-old group (30-39, p = 0.276; 40-49, p < 0.001; 50-59, p < 0.001; 60-69, p < 0.001; 70-, p < 0.01, Mann-Whitney ^* p < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U-test between 20-29 U-test). year-old group and another age groups.

Figure 4.

The average meiboscore stratified by age groups or location in each age groups. There was no significant differences of meiboscore between the upper and lower eyelid in each age groups (p = 0.716, 0.718, 0.507, 0.549, 0.688 and 0.383, respectively, Mann-Whitney U-test).

Table 1.

Number of subjects in each age group

Age (years)	Male (n)	Female (n)	Total (n)
20-29	11	14	25
30-39	9	6	15
40-49	9	7	16
50-59	9	13	22
60-69	8	8	16
70-	10	13	23
Total	56	61	117

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