Morphometric evaluation and measurements of primary pterygium by anterior segment optical coherence tomography and its relation with astigmatism

PURPOSE: To evaluate the relationship between measurements and various morphometric parameters of primary pterygium on anterior segment optical coherence tomography(AS-OCT) and refractive and keratometric astigmatism. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, patients with primary pterygium were included. The AS-OCT parameters of pterygium consisting of epithelial thickness near apex(µm), apical or head thickness(µm), its thickness at limbus(µm), horizontal length of pterygium(mm), central corneal thickness (µm) and maximum pterygium thickness(mm) were evaluated. RESULTS: Sixty three patients comprising of 63 eyes with a primary pterygium were studied. The mean keratometric and refractive astigmatism were 1.69 ± 3.15 Diopter(D) and0.5 ± 1.4D, respectively. There was a significant association between pterygium grade and stocker’s line with keratometric astigmatism (p = 0.02, 0.00) respectively. Vertical and horizontal length on slit lamp and horizontal length on AS-OCT showed significant association with keratometric astigmatism (p = 0.05, 0.00,0.00), respectively. Limbal thickness on AS-OCT showed significant positive correlation with refractive astigmatism (r = 0.29, p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: The pterygium grade influences the keratometric astigmatism. Increased limbal thickness of pterygium on AS-OCT leads to more refractive astigmatism.