Novel noncontact meibography with anterior segment optical coherence tomography: Hosik meibography

To present a novel noncontact meibography system with anterior segment optical coherence tomography (OCT), which is widely used in clinics for the anterior segment (cornea, anterior chamber angle, etc.), and compare the results with preexisting infrared meibography.

This research was carried out at the Seoul St Mary's Hospital with 2 volunteers. Preexisting infrared meibography was performed on the subjects, and photographs of the meibomian gland were taken again with the anterior segment OCT. With the anterior segment OCT, a tomogram of the meibomian gland could be taken and a picture of the whole meibomian gland could be taken from the infrared images for monitoring.

The resolution of the preexisting infrared meibography was a pixel size of 640 × 480. In the anterior segment OCT, the meibomian glands were clearly identified just beneath the palpebral conjunctiva. There was no problem in grading the meibomian gland with the infrared images for monitoring. The resolution was 239 × 178 or 129 × 95 pixels, depending on the save option of the photograph.

This novel meibography using anterior OCT yielded meibomian gland tomograms without any additional equipment, and overall infrared meibography was possible for grading. We believe this new technique will be useful in clinics for meibomian gland dysfunction and the like.