Corneal biometry from volumetric SDOCT and comparison with existing clinical modalities

We present a comparison of corneal biometric values from dense volumetric spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) scans to reference values in both phantoms and clinical subjects. We also present a new optically based “keratometric equivalent power” formula for SDOCT that eliminates previously described discrepancies between corneal power form SDOCT and existing clinical modalities. Phantom objects of varying radii of curvature and corneas of normal subjects were imaged with a clinical SDOCT system. The optically corrected three-dimensional surfaces were used to recover radii of curvature and power as appropriate. These were then compared to the manufacturer’s reference values in phantoms and to measurements from topography and Scheimpflug photography in subjects. In phantom objects, paired differences between SDOCT and reference values for radii of curvature were not statistically significant. In subjects, there were no significant paired differences between SDOCT and reference values from the other modalities for anterior radius and corneal keratometric power. In contrast to other studies, we found that dense volumetric scans with available SDOCT can be used to recover corneal biometric values—including power—that correspond well with existing clinical measurements.