Abstract
Purpose :
To compare the corneal higher-order aberrations (HOAs) among various corneal diseases and post-keratoplasty conditions to validate its clinical relevance as a biomarker.
Methods :
This retrospective study includes a total of 578 eyes (bullous keratopathy: 37 eyes, keratoconus: 35 eyes, corneal scar due to herpes simplex keratitis: 47 eyes, bacterial-keratitis: 35 eyes, fungal keratitis: 8 eyes, Acanthamoeba keratitis: 20 eyes, corneal perforation: 40 eyes, Stevens-Johnson syndrome [SJS]: 76 eyes, phlyctenular keratitis: 47 eyes, lattice corneal dystrophy: 32 eyes, macular corneal dystrophy: 13 eyes, granular corneal dystrophy: 119 eyes, post-penetrating keratoplasty [PKP]: 17 eyes, post-deep-anterior-lamellar-keratoplasty [DALK]: 17eyes, post-Descemet’-stripping automated-endothelial keratoplasty [DSAEK]: 17 eyes and 18 normal eyes). Corneal HOAs within a 4mm-diameter area were calculated using anterior segment optical coherence tomography and compared among the diseases.
Results :
Corneal HOAs were 1.39±1.46μ in fungal keratitis, 1.18±2.11μm in Acanthamoeba keratitis, 1.00±1.00μm in herpes simplex keratitis, 0.96±0.79μm in SJS, 0.95±0.53μm in keratoconus, 0.91±0.88μm in bacterial keratitis, 0.66±0.68μm in corneal scar after traumatic perforation, 0.61±1.56μm in lattice corneal dystrophy, 0.57±0.44μm in phlyctenular keratitis, 0.5±0.37μm in bullous keratopathy, 0.23± 0.18μm in macular corneal dystrophy, 0.17±0.35μm in granular corneal dystrophy which were significantly larger compared to normal eyes (0.09 ± 0.01μm, all P<0.05). Regarding the corneal transplantations, corneal HOAs at 6 months were 0.59±0.51μm after PKP, 0.47±0.26μm after DALK, and 0.34±0.12μm after DSAEK. The visual acuities (logarithm of minimal angle resolution) were significantly correlated with corneal HOAs in all corneal diseases and post-keratoplasty procedures except granular corneal dystrophy (P<0.05).
Conclusions :
Although we need to consider the effect of corneal opacity on visual acuity, corneal HOAs can be one of the potential biomarkers to assess the influence of the corneal optical function on visual acuity in each corneal disease and to help deciding the indication for corneal transplantation.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.