Lamina cribrosa thickness is not correlated with central corneal thickness or axial length in healthy eyes: central corneal thickness, axial length, and lamina cribrosa thickness.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of the central corneal thickness (CCT) and axial length (AXL) with the central lamina cribrosa thickness (LCT) in healthy human eyes.

METHODS

This was a prospective observational case series. The optic discs of 189 eyes from 100 healthy subjects with a refractive error smaller than -8 diopters were scanned using enhanced-depth imaging spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (Spectralis OCT, Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany). The thickness of the lamina cribrosa (LC) was measured on B-scan images obtained at the center of the optic nerve head. A linear mixed-effects model was used to determine the factors associated with LCT, taking into account clustering of eyes within subjects.

RESULTS

The thickness of the central LC was 273.19 ± 34.74 μm (mean ± SD; range, 173.73-367.94 μm). Multivariate analysis revealed a significant influence of older age on increased central LCT (p = 0.001). There was no significant association between central LCT and either CCT or AXL.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, the central LCT increased significantly with older age in healthy human eyes. Neither CCT nor AXL was significantly associated with the central LCT in healthy human eyes with a spherical equivalent within the range from -7.0 to +3.0 diopters.