Purpose
Safety and efficacy of anterior segment optical coherence tomography epithelial thickness mapping as an ectasia prognosis
Methods
Epithelial thickness mapping was studied with anterior-segment optical coherence tomography (AS OCT) and high-frequency ultrasound biomicroscopy (HF UBM). Comparative study was conducted in eyes in normal group (N), keratoconic group (KCN) and keratoconic eyes treated with collagen-cross linking group (K CXL).
Results
Our study indicates substantial topographic variation in epithelium thickness in the KCN group, however, there was an overall thickening of the epithelium, particularly over the pupil center of the order of + 3 μm, while the mean epithelium thickness is on average + 1.1 μm compared to the N group. No statistically significant difference was found between the N group and the K CXL group in terms of overall epithelium thickness. This finding was more pronounced among younger patients, and in agreement with high-frequency ultrasound epithelium thickness imaging.
Conclusions
AS OCT and HF UBM epithelial imaging indicates that on average, epithelium thickness in the K group was thicker, possibly as a reaction to ectasia. This may aid in the sub-clinical screening, particularly among young patients.
Keywords: 574 keratoconus •
482 cornea: epithelium •
421 anterior segment