A recent study published in Optometry and Vision Science assessed the potential association between the diagnosis of meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) and dyslipidemia.
Give me some background first.
Previous research has suggested an association between MGD and dyslipidemia, which is the imbalance of lipids such as cholesterol and low-density / high-density lipoprotein (LDL-C / HDL-C). However, the odds of dyslipidemia in MGD has not yet been estimated.
Now talk about the study.
Investigators used a meta-analysis to gather information from three databases—PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus using odds ratios.
Heterogeneity between three case-control and two cohort studies, all of which assessed the association between dyslipidemia and MGD (based on the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale), was determined with the Chi-square statistic and degree of inconsistency.
Findings?
The chances of hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia developing in MGD were 5.45 (95% CI: 1.65 to 17.95) and 3.28 (95% CI: 1.25 to 8.62), respectively.
Further, the chances for elevated serum LDL and reduced HDL in MGD were 2.72 (95% CI: 1.24 to 5.98) and 1.15 (95% CI: 0.74 to 1.79), respectively.
Any limitations?
The authors noted that they did not assess the effects of age and gender as well as MGD severity on the association between dyslipidemia and MGD.
Significance?
These findings suggest a strong correlation between dyslipidemia and MGD, and, as a result, the need for dyslipidemia screening at the onset of MGD diagnosis.