Diagnostic criteria for meibomian gland dysfunction: A prospective registry-based external validation analysis

Abstract

Meibomian gland dysfunction is the leading contributor to evaporative dry eye disease.[1–3] However, to date, there is a lack of standardisation of the diagnostic criteria of meibomian gland dysfunction, which will contribute to the large variation in the reported disease prevalence ranging from 21 to 71 %.[4,5] A recently published study by Jagadeesh et al. in Contact Lens & Anterior Eye examined the impact of various diagnostic criteria on the determined frequency of meibomian gland dysfunction in a cohort of clinical trial participants with moderate-to-severe dry eye disease,[1] incorporating commonly used clinical parameters including gland plugging, expressed meibum quality, superior and inferior meibography grading.[1,6–11] However, the impact of the variation in meibomian gland dysfunction diagnostic criteria in general population settings, including subgroups with and without dry eye disease, remains yet to be investigated.