Comparison in conjunctival-Tenon's capsule thickness, anterior scleral thickness and ciliary muscle dimensions between Caucasians and Hispanic by optical coherence tomography.

PURPOSE: To investigate the differences in the dimensions of the anterior ocular segment, and specifically in conjunctival-Tenon's capsule thickness (CTT), anterior scleral thickness (AST) and ciliary muscle thickness (CMT), between Caucasian and Hispanic subjects using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT). METHODS: Cross-sectional study including 53 Hispanic and 60 Caucasian healthy participants, matched by age, sex and refractive error, who underwent a complete ophthalmological examination. CTT, AST and CMT were manually measured in the temporal and nasal quadrants at 0, 1, 2 and 3 mm from the scleral spur using SS-OCT. RESULTS: Mean age and refractive error were 38.7 ± 12.3 years and -1.05 ± 2.6 diopters, and 41.8 ± 11.7 years and -0.50 ± 2.6 diopters for the Hispanic and Caucasians, respectively (p = 0.165 and p = 0.244). The CTT was increased in the temporal quadrant in the Hispanic group in the three studied regions (CTT1, CTT2 and CTT3; being the means 223.0 ± 68.4, 215.3 ± 66.4 and 203.8 ± 67.1 µm versus 190.8 ± 51.0, 189.4 ± 53.2 and 187.4 ± 55.3 µm respectively; p < 0.001). Larger AST values were observed in the temporal quadrant in the Hispanic group (AST2: 559.8 ± 80.8 µm and AST3: 591.6 ± 83.0 µm) compared to the Caucasian group (520.7 ± 50.1 and 558.9 ± 54.7 respectively; p ≤ 0.022). No differences were observed in the nasal quadrant for CTT, AST1 and AST3 (p ≥ 0.076). No differences emerged in the CM dimensions (p ≥ 0.055). CONCLUSION: CTT and AST measurements were thicker in the temporal quadrant of Hispanic patients compared to Caucasians. This could have implications for the pathogenesis of different ocular diseases.

Reply to Stanojcic et al. Comment on "Fernández-Vigo et al. Objective Classification of Glistening in Implanted Intraocular Lenses Using Optical Coherence Tomography: Proposal for a New Classification and Grading System. J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12, 2351".

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Objective Classification of Glistening in Implanted Intraocular Lenses Using Optical Coherence Tomography: Proposal for a New Classification and Grading System.

PURPOSE: To propose a classification of the glistening in intraocular lenses (IOL) using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) by means of a simple, objective and reproducible method that allows the quantification of the presence and severity of glistening. METHODS: A cross-sectional study on a sample of 150 eyes of 150 patients who underwent cataract surgery in at least 600 days before the exam and attended a routine examination. Each subject was examined by SS-OCT after pupil dilation, identifying the presence of glistening or hyperreflective foci (HRF) in the central area of the IOL. The degree of glistening was classified into four categories: 0: ≤5 HRF; 1: 6 to 15 HRF; 2: 16 to 30 HRF; and 3: >30 HRF. The intra and interobserver reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC) in the quantification and classification of the glistening were calculated. The correlation between the horizontal and vertical scan of the IOL was also assessed. RESULTS: Glistening was present in the IOL in 42.7% of the patients. The mean number of HRF or glistening microvacuoles was 10.4 ± 26.2 (range 0 to 239). In total, 63.3% of the IOLs had a grade 0, 20% grade a 1, 6.7% grade a 2 and 10% a grade 3. The intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility were very high, both for the absolute quantification of the glistening (ICC ≥ 0.994) and for the severity scale (ICC ≥ 0.967). There was an excellent correlation in the quantification of the IOL glistening between the horizontal and vertical scans (R ≥ 0.834; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The use of SS-OCT makes it possible to identify, quantify and classify IOL glistening in a simple, objective and reproducible way. This technique could provide relevant information for the study of the glistening on IOLs.

Anterior scleral thickness dimensions by swept-source optical coherence tomography.

Clinical relevance: Given the association of scleral characteristics with many ophthalmological diseases, there is an important need to measure the anterior scleral thickness (AST).Background: This study examined the AST by swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) in a large healthy population, assessing also the reproducibility of AST measurements and the correlation with different parameters.Methods: Cross-sectional study in 605 eyes of 605 subjects. AST measurements were made in the temporal and nasal quadrants at 1 (AST1) and 3 mm (AST3) from the scleral spur using SS-OCT. These dimensions were then assessed for associations in a multivariate model with the factors age, sex, refractive error, conjunctival-Tenon capsule thickness (CTT), anterior chamber angle (ACA), intraocular pressure (IOP), iris thickness (IT), limbus-sulcus distance (LSD), and ciliary muscle thickness (CMT). The reproducibility of the AST measurements was determined in 30 of the participants.Results: The mean age was 42.6 ± 17.3 years (range 5 to 86 years). The following means were recorded: AST1 was 522.3 ± 65.7 µm (355 to 761) and 558.4 ± 71.5 µm (357 to 889); AST2 was 513.3 ± 67.3 µm (343 to 732) and 574.4 ± 71.6 µm (389 to 789), and AST3 548.8 ± 71.9 µm (356 to 762) and 590.1 ± 76.6 µm (414 to 873) in the temporal and nasal quadrants respectively, being thicker the nasal quadrant (all p < 0.001). A positive correlation was detected between AST and age, sex, temporal ACA and LSD (all p ≤ 0.043), being negative the correlation with CMT (p ≤ 0.044). No correlation was observed between AST measurements and refractive error, CTT and IT (p ≥ 0.064). The reproducibility of AST measurements was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient ≥0.951).Conclusions: SS-OCT allows for in vivo AST measurements. Our data contained a wide range of measurements, showing an association between AST and age, sex, ACA, LSD and CMT.