A Comparative Study of Central Corneal Epithelial, Stromal, and Total Thickness in Males With and Without Primary...

To compare the central corneal epithelial thickness (CET), stromal thickness (CST), and total thickness (CCT) in males with and without primary open-angle glaucoma and to determine the factors associated with corneal thickness.

A case-control study was conducted to evaluate 116 male patients at the Miami Veterans Affair Medical Center. Subjects with available anterior segment optical coherence tomography images (Cirrus HD-OCT, Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc, Dublin, CA) were retrospectively classified into 2 groups by glaucoma status. CET, CST, and CCT measurements between the groups were compared. Associations between thickness and other variables of interest were also evaluated.

The 2 groups were similar with respect to race and ethnicity. Mean age of patients in the glaucoma group (70.3 ± 8.9) was higher than in the nonglaucoma group (66.0 ± 11.7), P < 0.03. Individuals who self-identified as black had lower CST (447.8 ± 29.0 μm) and CCT (503.0 ± 30.5 μm) compared with whites (CST: 470.0 ± 31.7 μm; CCT: 525.1 ± 32.4 μm), P = 0.0001 and P = 0.0002, respectively. In a similar manner, individuals with glaucoma had lower CST (453.4 ± 32.5 μm) and CCT (507.3 ± 33.8 μm) than that of those without glaucoma (CST: 465.2 ± 31.2 μm; CCT: 521.5 ± 31.5 μm), P = 0.05 and P = 0.02, respectively. CET, CST, and CCT were negatively correlated with the number of antiglaucoma medications (r = -0.2, r = -0.22, and r = -0.25, respectively), P = 0.05 for all.

Individuals with glaucoma have lower CST and CCT measurements compared with individuals without glaucoma. An increased number of glaucoma medications were associated with lower thickness measurements.