Exophthalmometric Values in a Normal Turkish Population Living in the Northeastern Part of Turkey

Abstract

Exophthalmometry is a simple examination procedure used for the early diagnosis of many of the orbital pathologies. The exophthalmometric measures tend to vary with age, sex, and race. Therefore, a lot of investigators conducted researches to determine the minimum, maximum, and normal values of exophthalmometric measures in their populations. We planned this study to gather data about the normal exophthalmometric measures in our population. In this study, 240 male and 240 female subjects with age ranging from 3 to 80 years were included. The results of measures from both the eyes were evaluated for the study subjects. The protrusions of both the eyes were measured simultaneously in daylight via Hertel exophthalmometry. The minimum and maximum measures of Hertel exophthalmometry for the male subjects were found to be 8 and 20 mm, respectively, with the mean being 13.49 +/- 2.6 mm. No statistically significant difference existed either between the eyes or between the age groups for the male subjects. The minimum and maximum measures of Hertel exophthalmometry for the female subjects were 8 and 19 mm, respectively, with the mean being 13.39 +/- 2.6 mm. Similar to the males, no statistically significant difference existed either between the eyes or between the age groups for the females. When the results of Hertel measurements for male and female subjects were compared, no significant difference could be found. As it provides results of exophthalmometry for the Turkish population, our study is important. However, larger, nationwide, and multisite studies examining more subjects may provide more valuable data about the Turkish population.