Decreased Central and Limbal Epithelium Thickness After Corneal Crosslinking Evaluated by Anterior Segment Optic Coherence Tomography

Abstract

Aim: To Investigate the central cornea, limbal epithelium thickness and stroma thickness after corneal cross-linking by Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography (AS-OCT) and Scheimpflug topography.Methods: Fifteen keratoconus patients treated with cross-linking(CXL) and fifteen untreated keratoconus patients was included to the study. Corneal central, limbal epithelial, stromal and total thickness with was analyzed by using Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Topography (AS-OCT) and keratometric values ​​were analyzed by Scheimpflug topography.Results: There was a statisticallly significant difference between treated and untreated keratoconus patients according to limbal epithelial thickness (LET). Limbal epithelial thickness was 30.7 ± 5.5µm in the treated keratoconus patients and 45.6 ± 11.5µm in the untreated patients (p = 0.04). Central corneal epithelial thickness (CCET) was 38.27±3.5 in the treated group and 60.8 ± 10.9µm in the untreated group. There was a statistically signifficant difference the between two groups (p=0.01). The posterior astigmatism value was 0.7 ± 0.3D in the treated group and 0.9 ± 0.5D in untreated group by Scheimpflug topography (p=0.03).Conclusion: Our study have shown that the central corneal epithelium and limbal epithelium were significantly thinned as a result of corneal cross-linking. Corneal posterior astigmatism value decreased among the keratometric values. Epithelial thickness and limbal thickness alterations detected with Ant-OCT could be useful for monitorizing the keratoconus patients treated with crosslinking and could show the effectivity of the treatment.