The repeatability of corneal topography measurements in severe Dry Eye disease

BACKGROUND: To determine the repeatability of corneal topography measurements in severe dry eye disease (DED). A comparison of corneal topography parameters between severe DED and healthy subjects was a secondary goal of this study. METHODS: Sixty-nine patients with severe DED and 46 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. All participants underwent repeated corneal topography measurements with Pentacam (Oculus, Germany) within a half hour time. Both eyes of the participants were used in statistical analysis. A further subcategorization of severe DED patients was performed according to Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) scores: 32–50, 51–70 and 71–100. The repeatability of corneal parameters was assessed with correlation coefficients (CC). RESULTS: The mean age of dry eye patients and healthy subjects were 40.8 ± 13.2 (17–66) and 39.8 ± 8.2 (18–61) years (p:0.604) respectively. No significant differences were found between severe DED and control groups according to analysed corneal parameters in both eyes (p:>0.05). All CCs were greater than 0.9 in severe DED group (p:<0.001). All CCs were also greater than 0.9 in severe DED patients among different OSDI groups (p:<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Corneal topography measurements are highly repeatable in severe DED with Pentacam. This is the first report about this topic. Nonetheless, further studies are needed with different topography devices for validation.