Anterior scleral thickness dimensions by swept-source optical coherence tomography

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Imaging
• Anatomy

Background:

• Anterior scleral thickness (AST) is linked to various eye diseases.
• Accurate measurement of AST is clinically significant.
• Swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) offers a non-invasive method for ocular biometry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine anterior scleral thickness (AST) in a large, healthy population using SS-OCT.
• To assess the reproducibility of AST measurements.
• To investigate correlations between AST and demographic/ocular parameters.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 605 healthy subjects (605 eyes).
• AST measurements taken temporally and nasally at 1mm and 3mm from the scleral spur via SS-OCT.
• Multivariate analysis assessed associations with age, sex, refractive error, CTT, ACA, IOP, iris thickness, LSD, and CMT.

Main Results:

• The nasal quadrant showed significantly thicker AST than the temporal quadrant (p < 0.001).
• AST positively correlated with age, sex, temporal ACA, and LSD (p ≤ 0.043).
• AST negatively correlated with CMT (p ≤ 0.044), with excellent measurement reproducibility (ICC ≥ 0.951).

Conclusions:

• SS-OCT enables reliable in vivo measurement of anterior scleral thickness.
• AST is associated with age, sex, anterior chamber angle, limbus-sulcus distance, and ciliary muscle thickness.
• These findings contribute to understanding scleral biomechanics and ocular health.