Differences of corneal and epithelial thickness profiles between stable and progressive keratoconus

Session Details

Session Title: Anterior Segment Imaging II

Session Date/Time: Tuesday 25/09/2018 | 08:00-10:30

Paper Time: 09:16

Venue: Room A4

First Author: : S.Serrao ITALY

Co Author(s): :    M. Lombardo   G. Lombardo                 

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To investigate the corneal and epithelial thickness profiles in stable and progressive keratoconus.

Setting:

Studio Italiano di Oftalmologia, Rome, Italy.

Methods:

86 patients with either stable or progressive keratoconus and 182 controls were enrolled in the study. The eyes with progressive keratoconus had undergone corneal cross-linking (CXL) more than 1 year earlier. All subjects had corneal and epithelial thickness mapping taken by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). For each eye, the corneal mapping was investigated by evaluating the central corneal thickness, the thinnest point, the superonasal-inferotemporal thickness difference and the minimum-median thickness difference. The epithelial mapping was investigated by assessing the 2 mm central thickness, the inferior thickness (2-5 mm), and the minimum-maximum thickness difference.

Results:

All the pre-specified corneal thickness values were significantly thinner (P<0.001) in keratoconus than controls, as expected. The central epithelial thickness and the minimum-maximum difference were lower in eyes with keratoconus than controls (P<0.001). Of note, the inferior paracentral region of the corneal epithelium was significantly thinner in progressive than stable keratoconus (P<0.001).

Conclusions:

The SD-OCT corneal epithelial mapping was valuable for detecting local thickness changes in eyes with keratoconus. Monitoring the corneal epithelial changes across the inferior area in patients with keratoconus could be worthy for assessing disease progression.

Financial Disclosure:

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