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OHTS: race plays role in central corneal thickness
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Black patients had thinner corneas than white patients in a study of 1,301 patients with ocular hypertension. Because corneal thickness affects intraocular pressure measurement, this finding may have implications for diagnosis, screening and management of ocular hypertension and glaucoma in black patients.
The Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS) found that patients with ocular hypertension have thicker corneas than the general population. But researchers here and elsewhere also found that black patients with ocular hypertension have thinner corneas than white patients with ocular hypertension.
Central corneal thickness was determined with ultrasonic pachymeters of the same make and model at all clinical sites participating in the OHTS. Overall mean central corneal thickness was 573.0 µm, but mean central corneal thickness for black patients was 23 µm thinner than for white subjects.
The study was published in the October issue of Ophthalmology.