Assessment of anterior scleral thickness in Turkish open angle glaucoma patients: an anterior segment optical coherence tomography study

Background To compare anterior scleral thickness (AST) in Turkish patients with open-angle glaucoma (primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PEG)) with healthy controls. Methods This prospective study involved 41 patients with PEG, 69 patients with POAG, and 46 healthy controls. We obtained spectral domain anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) images from the nasal and temporal quadrants and made AST measurements of 1 mm (AST), 2 mm (AST2), 3 mm (AST3), and 4 mm (AST4) posterior to the scleral spur (SS). Schlemm's canal (SC) diameter and area measurements were performed using the ImageJ software. The results were compared statistically. Results The average ASTs of the groups did not differ significantly (p > 0.05 for each). The analysis of the nasal SC diameter revealed a significant decrease in the POAG group in comparison with the PEG group, with no difference observed between the POAG and control groups (p = 0.038*). The mean nasal and temporal SC area was significantly smaller in the PEG and POAG groups compared with the control group (p < 0.001** and p < 0.001**, respectively). Conclusions There was no significant difference in nasal and temporal AST between groups; however, the SC area was found to be smaller in glaucoma groups compared with healthy controls. The present findings should be supported by further studies.