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- 1Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
- 2Wuhu City Eye Hospital, Wuhu, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
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
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.