Ehlers Niels, Hjortdal Jesper
Department of Ophthalmology, Arhus University Hospital, DK 8000 Arhus C, Denmark.
Exp Eye Res. 2004 Mar;78(3):543-8. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2003.09.017.
The thickness of the cornea was reported in more than 100-year-old textbooks on physiological optics (Helmholtz, Gullstrand). Physiological interest was revived in the 1950s by David Maurice, and over the next 50 years, this 'simple' biological parameter has been studied extensively. Several techniques for its measurement have been described and physiological and clinical significance have been studied. In this review, the different methods and techniques of measurement are briefly presented (optical, ultrasound). While the corneal thickness of many animals are the same over a considerable part of the surface, in the human cornea anterior and posterior curvature are not concentric giving rise to a problem of definition. Based on this the precision and accuracy of determining the central corneal thickness are discussed. Changes in corneal thickness reflects changes in function of the boundary layers, in particular the endothelial barrier. The absolute value of thickness is of importance for the estimation of IOP but also in diagnosis of corneal and systemic disorders. Finally it is discussed to what extent the thickness is a biometric parameter of significance, e.g. in the progression of myopia or in the development of retinal detachment.
角膜厚度在100多年前的生理光学教科书中就有记载（如亥姆霍兹、古尔斯特兰德的著作）。20世纪50年代，大卫·莫里斯重新唤起了人们对其生理方面的兴趣，在接下来的50年里，这个“简单”的生物学参数得到了广泛研究。已经描述了几种测量角膜厚度的技术，并对其生理和临床意义进行了研究。在这篇综述中，简要介绍了不同的测量方法和技术（光学法、超声法）。虽然许多动物的角膜厚度在相当大的表面区域内是相同的，但人类角膜的前表面和后表面曲率并非同心，这就产生了一个定义问题。基于此，讨论了确定中央角膜厚度的精度和准确性。角膜厚度的变化反映了边界层功能的变化，特别是内皮屏障的功能变化。角膜厚度的绝对值对于眼压的估计很重要，在角膜和全身性疾病的诊断中也很重要。最后，讨论了角膜厚度在多大程度上是一个有意义的生物特征参数，例如在近视进展或视网膜脱离发展过程中的意义。
