Abstract
Purpose:
To evaluate scleral thickness in patients with scleritis and episcleritis using enhanced depth anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT)
Methods:
Cross sectional prospective case series including consecutive patients with episcleral or scleral inflammatory disease located anterior to the equator, that presented to a tertiary referral center between December 2013 and October 2014. Main outcome measure was thickness of the scleral wall measured on AS-OCT images and compared to the scleral thickness of the contra-lateral healthy eye
Results:
Eleven patients with a mean age at presentation of 19.54 years (min 19y, max 77y) presented with symptomatic scleritis or episcleritis. Mean scleral thickness of the sclera in eyes with scleritis was 1006 +/- 58 μm as compared to 813 +/- 39 μm in the same quadrant of the fellow eye (p < 0.05). Mean scleral thickness in episcleritis was 952 +/- 107 μm as compared to 764 +/- 15 μm in the fellow eye (p = 0.158). Enhanced depth As-OCT showed that the thickening occured manily in the episcleral layer in both scleritis and episcleritis
Conclusions:
Enhanced depth AS-OCT may be a useful tool for evaluating scleral thickness in patients with scleritis or episcleritis and may serve to monitor therapeutic success in these patients