Abstract
Our purpose was to prospectively analyze the age-related changes of corneal Scheimpflug parameters in healthy subjects. Thirty-five eyes of 35 volunteers (age 14–67 years) were investigated with an average interval of 3.6 years. Changes of corneal parameters (flattest keratometric reading at anterior (K1F) and posterior surface (K1B), steepest keratometric reading at anterior (K2F) and posterior surface, anterior astigmatism, posterior astigmatism (AstigB), flat axis of anterior and posterior astigmatism (AxisB), thinnest pachymetric value (PachyMin), corneal volume (CV10-mm)) were analyzed. K1F and K2F decreased significantly during observation and showed stronger decrease in younger than in older individuals. Higher values proved to be more stable. K1B decreased significantly and the degree of decrease was dependent on its baseline value and age: in young subjects low values increased, high values decreased. AstigB decreased significantly and showed a baseline-dependent significant increase from lower and a significant decrease from higher initial values. Over time, the mean AxisB shifted significantly. PachyMin and CV decreased significantly with age, especially from higher baseline values in younger subjects. The results of this longitudinal study suggest that both corneal surfaces change significantly with age. We demonstrate for the first time that age and baseline values influence age-related changes of corneal parameters.
Highlights
Aging is a physiological process and occasionally it is hard to differentiate between time dependent biological changes and damages from environmental insults[1]
Corneal thickness decreases throughout infancy; during babyhood it reaches adult thickness and, from that point on, central corneal thickness (CCT) appears to be stable over time[12]
A wide range of changes occur in the aging cornea, some of which are clinically relevant for planning surgical procedures such as correcting astigmatism and myopia, for glaucoma management, and for the management of corneal ectatic disorders
Summary
Aging is a physiological process and occasionally it is hard to differentiate between time dependent biological changes and damages from environmental insults[1]. The assessment of the progression of ectatic corneal disorders in young patients determines the optimal treatment and the glaucoma management in the elderly can only be personalized if we take account the changes of corneal thickness. Age-dependent change of corneal thickness has been studied extensively. Age-related change in corneal thickness appears to be rather controversial in other studies[13,14,15,16,17,18]. CCT has been extensively investigated in glaucoma www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Www.nature.com/scientificreports development in the elderly, and it is known to directly affect the strategy of glaucoma management[13,14,19]. Corneal thinning was extensively studied in young keratoconus patients[20,21]. Scheimpflug-based tomography provides corneal thickness map and curvature maps of both the anterior and the posterior surfaces which improves the sensitivity and specificity of keratoconus detection[11,21,22]
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