Masood Bagheri*, Ahad Jafari, Mohammad Mirzaei, Sasan Jafari and Mahdi Mohammadkhani

Imam Khomeini Eye Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Iran

*Corresponding Author: Masood Bagheri, Imam Khomeini Eye Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

Received: September 05, 2023; Published: December 13, 2023

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the epithelial thickness profile changes using optical coherence tomography (OCT) after corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL) for keratoconus.

Methods: Thirty eyes of 30 keratoconus patients (13 males and 17 females) with the mean age of 21.6 ± 4.1, who were candidates for CXL were examined. Before and after CXL, patients underwent corneal epithelial thickness measurement with anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) and the results were compared.

Results: The best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was changed from 0.33 ± 0.26 logarithm of the minimum angle resolution (logMAR) to 0.17 ± 0.29 logMAR at 6 months after surgery (p < 0.001). The corneal epithelial thickness in the superior was significantly reduced after surgery (55.2 ± 3.8 μm and 51.73 ± 3.73 μm, respectively, p < 0.001). The epithelial thickness in the inferotemporal was also significantly reduced after surgery (55.05 ± 4.6 μm and 51.57 ± 3.35 μm, respectively, p < 0.001). The ratio of the superior and inferior epithelial thickness was significantly decreased from 1.02 ± 0.07 to 0.96 ± 0.03 at 6 months after surgery (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that CXL improved the vision of keratoconus patients. The corneal epithelial thickness decreased in all sectors that were statistically significant in the superior and inferotemporal areas. It seems that the epithelial thickness evaluation is important in both treated and untreated patients and gives beneficial information about the corneal biomechanics and its remodeling.

Keywords: Keratoconus; Collagen Cross-Linking; Corneal Epithelial Thickness; Visual Acuity; OCT

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Citation

Citation: Masood Bagheri., et al. “Investigation of Epithelial Thickness Profile Using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) After Corneal Collagen Cross-linking for Keratoconus".Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 7.1 (2024): 16-22.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2024 Masood Bagheri., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.