Precise measurement of scleral radius using anterior eye profilometry

Abstract

Purpose: To develop a new and precise methodology to measure the scleral radius based on anterior eye surface.

Methods: Eye Surface Profiler (ESP, Eaglet-Eye, Netherlands) was used to acquire the anterior eye surface of 23 emmetropic subjects aged 28.1±6.6years (mean±standard deviation) ranging from 20 to 45. Scleral radius was obtained based on the approximation of the topographical scleral data to a sphere using least squares fitting and considering the axial length as a reference point. To better understand the role of scleral radius in ocular biometry, measurements of corneal radius, central corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth and white-to-white corneal diameter were acquired with IOLMaster 700 (Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Jena, Germany).

Results: The estimated scleral radius (11.2±0.3mm) was shown to be highly precise with a coefficient of variation of 0.4%. A statistically significant correlation between axial length and scleral radius (R²=0.957, p<0.001) was observed. Moreover, corneal radius (R²=0.420, p<0.001), anterior chamber depth (R²=0.141, p=0.039) and white-to-white corneal diameter (R²=0.146, p=0.036) have also shown statistically significant correlations with the scleral radius. Lastly, no correlation was observed comparing scleral radius to the central corneal thickness (R²=0.047, p=0.161).

Conclusions: Three-dimensional topography of anterior eye acquired with Eye Surface Profiler together with a given estimate of the axial length, can be used to calculate the scleral radius with high precision.

Keywords: Anterior eye topography; Fourier domain profilometer; Scleral contact lenses; Scleral curvature.