Single-Center Retrospective Study on Meibomian Gland Loss in Patients With Ocular Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease

This study aimed to analyze the influencing factors of meibomian gland loss in patients with ocular chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and its correlation with other clinical ocular surface assessment indexes.

The clinical data of patients with ocular chronic GVHD from the ocular surface and corneal outpatient clinic of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University were reviewed from June 2012 to June 2016. The relationship between the percentage of meibomian gland acinar area and the influencing factors, such as patient's sex, age, transplantation method, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching, the time when eye discomfort appeared after transplantation (month), and the severity of ocular chronic GVHD, was investigated. Moreover, the correlation between the percentage of meibomian gland acinar area and other ocular surface assessment indexes, such as subjective ocular symptom score, eyelid margin score, tear film break-up time, corneal and conjunctival staining score, and the Schirmer test, was analyzed.

A linear relationship was found between the percentage of meibomian gland acinar area and the severity of ocular chronic GVHD, but no linear relationship existed between the percentage of meibomian gland acinar area and the factors such as sex, age, transplantation method, HLA matching, and the time when eye discomfort appeared after transplantation. A negative correlation was observed between the percentage of meibomian gland acinar area and eyelid margin score.

The percentage of meibomian gland acinar area can reflect the severity of ocular chronic GVHD. The clinical significance of the percentage of meibomian gland acinar area needs further investigation.