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Thinner corneas in OH associated with earlier functional damage, study finds
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The corneal thickness of ocular hypertension patients should be taken into account when assessing the risk for their progression to glaucoma, a group of surgeons advise.
Robert Weinreb, MD, and colleagues at the Hamilton Glaucoma Center in San Diego examined the correlation between corneal thickness and the results of frequency doubling technology (FDT) perimetry in ocular hypertensive patients. They studied 65 patients with ocular hypertension who had normal optic discs and normal visual fields on standard automated perimetry (SAP) and 52 normal control subjects. All participants underwent SAP, frequency doubling technology (FDT) perimetry and central corneal thickness measurements using ultrasound pachymetry.
Fourteen (21.5%) of the patients with ocular hypertension demonstrated repeatable FDT abnormalities. The mean central corneal thickness of patients with ocular hypertension and abnormal FDT results was significantly lower than the mean central corneal thickness of patients with ocular hypertension and normal FDT results (P = .003). No statistically significant difference was found between mean central corneal thickness in normal subjects and in patients with ocular hypertension with abnormal FDT results.
The study is published in the October issue of Ophthalmology.