Comparison of central corneal thickness in dogs measured by ultrasound pachymetry and ultrasound biomicroscopy

Abstract

Ultrasound pachymetry (UP) is currently the most common technique used to evaluate central corneal thickness (CCT). New devices which allow assessment of CCT without corneal contact have been compared, but there are discrepancies among instruments. The aim of this study was to compare CCT measurements obtained by UP and ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) in 28 eyes of 14 healthy Beagles dogs. Mean CCT±standard deviation (SD) were 552±63μm for UP and 551±55μm for UBM. UBM showed both a fixed and proportional bias when compared to ultrasound pachymetry, but this was not considered to be clinically important. Measured CCT did not differ between UP and UBM (P=0.796). The intra-class correlation coefficient indicated a strong agreement between methods (0.990). The CCT measurements between left (548±61μm) and right (555±59μm) eyes did not differ (P=0.760). Male dogs had higher CCT measurements than female dogs (P=0.038).