Purpose
To asses a reference for central corneal thickness in a Hispanic population and correlate this data to another evaluable variables.
Methods
A retrospective analysis was performed on 93 patients randomly selected from the Instituto de Oftalmología y Ciencias Visuales, Tec Salud (Monterrey, México). We obtained data regarding age, corneal curvature, and the spherical equivalent. The Pearson method of correlation was used to analyze the variables. The averages and ranges were calculated to establish the average central corneal thickness and its distribution with normality tests Anderson-Darling, Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov
Results
We obtained a corneal thickness average of 545.69 ± 36.88μm in both eyes. The distribution curve of pachymetry showed a bimodal distribution at 540μm and 580μm. The Anderson-Darling test concluded with a p-value = 0.006, the Shapiro-Wilk test with a p-value = 0.043 and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov with a p-value = 0.010. The Pearson correlation method showed a correlation between age and pachymetry of -0.080, pachymetry and keratometry of 0.099, and pachymetry with spherical equivalent of 0.033. The correlation between age and keratometry was -0.259, age and spherical equivalent of 0.519, and keratometry and spherical equivalent of -0.20. The population studied was 57% men and 43% women, with an average age of 32.5 years.
Conclusions
This study provides information about corneal thickness average in a Hispanic population. The theory about possible correlation between corneal thickness and age, sex, and spherical equivalent could not be verified in this study. However, it was possible to determine that there is not normal distribution. In order to obtain a more representative statistic study, we need to analyze more patient data given that there is very little information available describing pachymetry among Mexican population.
Keywords: 479 cornea: clinical science