Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Hashmanis Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
Asia Pac J Ophthalmol (Phila). 2019 Jul-Aug;8(4):324-329. doi: 10.1097/APO.0000000000000252.
The measurement of corneal thickness by corneal pachymetry provides valuable information in the setting of corneal disease; however, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT)-based assessment of different corneal sectors has been scarce in Pakistan.
We aimed to obtain a whole-corneal thickness map using SD-OCT and to evaluate its correlation with age, sex, and axial length.
Our study included 214 subjects with healthy corneas; each eye was scanned with an SD-OCT covering a 9-mm diameter, and reproducibility was evaluated in a subset of 50 participants by means of an identical scan protocol repeated by 2 different OCT operators.
Our analysis revealed corneal thickness to be thinnest inferotemporally whereas thickest in the superior and superonasal quadrants. No statistically significant differences could be detected between male and female participants with respect to corneal thickness, age, intraocular pressure, axial length, and refractive errors. However, we identified a significant negative correlation between age and corneal thickness in all corneal sections, excluding the inner and middle superior, inner superonasal, and inner and middle superotemporal quadrants. Conversely, the correlation between axial length and corneal thickness was found to be positive in the central region (P = 0.03, R = 0.149), the outer inferotemporal quadrant (P = 0.012, R = 0.171), throughout the temporal quadrant (P = 0.024, R = 0.154 for inner; P = 0.025, R = 0.153 for middle; P = 0.006, R = 0.186 for outer), and in the inner superotemporal quadrant (P = 0.018, R = 0.162).
Different corneal sectors may interact heterogeneously with patient-related characteristics. This may provide incentive to evaluate whole-corneal thickness as a distinct parameter for clinical identification of disease processes.
角膜厚度的测量通过角膜生物力学测量仪提供了有价值的信息，在角膜疾病的情况下; 然而，基于谱域光相干断层扫描 (SD-OCT) 的不同角膜区的评估在巴基斯坦还很少见。
我们的目的是使用 SD-OCT 获得整个角膜厚度图，并评估其与年龄、性别和眼轴的相关性。
我们的研究包括 214 名健康角膜的受试者; 每只眼均用 SD-OCT 扫描，直径为 9mm，并通过 2 名不同的 OCT 操作员重复相同的扫描方案，在 50 名参与者的子集中评估重复性。
我们的分析显示，角膜最薄的部位是下颞侧，最厚的部位是上和上鼻侧象限。在角膜厚度、年龄、眼压、眼轴和屈光不正方面，男性和女性参与者之间没有统计学上的显著差异。然而，我们发现所有角膜区域，除了内上、内上鼻侧和内上、中颞侧象限外，年龄与角膜厚度之间存在显著的负相关。相反，在中央区域 (P=0.03, R=0.149)、外下颞侧象限 (P=0.012, R=0.171)、整个颞侧区域 (P=0.024, R=0.154 为内; P=0.025, R=0.153 为中; P=0.006, R=0.186 为外) 和内上颞侧象限 (P=0.018, R=0.162) 中，眼轴与角膜厚度之间存在正相关。
不同的角膜区可能与患者相关特征呈异质相互作用。这可能促使我们将整个角膜厚度作为临床识别疾病过程的一个独特参数进行评估。
