Abstract
Purpose :
Keratometry has previously been reported to flatten within the first year of life and not change significantly up to age 5. Large datasets with biometry are largely unavailable because taking the measurements typically requires general anesthesia. This study leverages data from the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study (IATS) to evaluate keratometry changes in the first decade of life.
Methods :
We used keratometry data from the IATS, which collected keratometry in infants undergoing surgery at the time of surgery, postoperative year one, age 5, and age 10. We fit a logarithmic model to fit keratometry measurements at the four time intervals. We next compared the mean keratometry measurements using student’s t test between two time intervals (age 1 to 10 and age 5 to 10) amongst all cataract, pseudophakic, aphakic, and fellow eyes. Variance was compared between cataractous and non-cataractous eyes at age 1, 5, and 10 using F test.
Results :
The IATS included 114 patients with unilateral cataracts, of which 57 became phakic and 57 aphakic. A logarithmic function (0.534 * log2(age in days) + 48.023) (Figure 1) modelled the decline in corneal steepness. We found no significant difference between the mean keratometry of any cohort (cataract, pseudophakic, aphakic, fellow) and either time interval (5 to 10 years, 1 to 10 years) (p ranged from 0.174 – 0.794). The variance of keratometry readings was significantly higher for cataractous than non-cataractous eyes at 1 (p=0.013), 5 (p=0.007), and 10 years (p=0.006).
Conclusions :
The Infant Aphakia Treatment Study provides a unique insight into corneal changes in childhood development, as one of the few collections of longterm biometric data in children. It demonstrates that while corneal curvature generally remains stable throughout early childhood, there is significantly more variability in keratometry in cataractous eyes, which warrants further study.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.