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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.

Sec. Ophthalmology

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1585396

This article is part of the Research TopicMolecular Mechanisms and Pathophysiology of Dry Eye Disease and Meibomian Gland DysfunctionView all articles

Changes in the Ocular Surface and Meibomian Glands Following Administration of 0.01% and 0.02% Atropine

Provisionally accepted
Xueyan  LiXueyan Li1Yanying  ZhuYanying Zhu1Haiyan  XieHaiyan Xie1Yuexin  ChenYuexin Chen1Yukun  LiuYukun Liu1Xiaochen  XuXiaochen Xu2Jing  WangJing Wang1*
  • 1Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
  • 2Wuhu City Eye Hospital, Wuhu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Purpose: To investigate the changes in the ocular surface and meibomian glands following the administration of 0.01% and 0.02% atropine.Methods: In this randomized controlled study, the 0.01% group (18 patients, 36 eyes) and the 0.02% group (15 patients, 30 eyes) underwent assessments using the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI), Visual Analogue scale (VAS), tear meniscus height (TMH), first noninvasive tear film breakup time (fNIBUT), and average noninvasive tear film breakup time (avNIBUT) at baseline (before administration) and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-treatment. The meibomian glands of both the upper (U) and lower (L) eyelids were evaluated using Meibomian Gland Bio-image Analyzer, measuring parameters such as average gland diameter (avGD), average gland length (avGL), average gland area (avGA), deformation coefficient (DC), and gland visibility score (VS). Results: There were no statistically significant differences in any of the parameters within the 0.01% group (all P > 0.05). In the within-group comparisons of the 0.02% group, OSDI was higher at 3 month (P = 0.006) and was lower at 12 months (P = 0.038). VAS was higher at 3 months and 6 months (all P < 0.05). TMH was lower at 12 months (all P < 0.05). U-VS was lower at 3 months (P = 0.006) and higher at 6 and 12 months (all P < 0.05). L-avGL was higher at 1 month (P = 0.001) and lower at 6 months (P = 0.013). L-VS was higher at 6 and 12 months (all P < 0.05). In the 0.02% group, at 3 months, the change in U-VS and L-VS were positively correlated with the change in the VAS (r = 0.542, P = 0.037; r = 0.614, P = 0.015). At 6 months, the change in L-VS was positively correlated with the change in OSDI (r = 0.610, P = 0.016). At 12 months, the change in U-VS was positively correlated with the change in TMH (r = 0.521, P = 0.003).Conclusion: 0.01% atropine had no significant impact. 0.02% atropine eye drops affected the lipid secretion of meibomian glands , tear meniscus height and subjective discomfort.

Keywords: low-concentration atropine, Myopia, Children, Ocular surface, Meibomian Gland Bio-image Analyzer

Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zhu, Xie, Chen, Liu, Xu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Jing Wang, Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

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