Comparison of Measurement of Central Corneal Thickness with Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography and Standard Ultrasonic Pachymeter in Premature Infants

Purpose. To evaluate the repeatability of measurement of central corneal thickness (CCT) by spectral domain optical coherence (SD-OCT) in premature infants and compare it to CCT measurement by ultrasonic pachymetry (USP). Methods. Three CCT measurements of the left eyes of 50 premature infants were obtained by SD-OCT using the iVue system. 10 CCT measurements of each 28 left eyes of 28 infants were obtained by USP using the Pacscan 300P system. Bland-Altman plots were developed and the limit of agreement (LoA) was determined to compare the mean of the SD-OCT and USP measurements. Results. No statistically significant difference was found among the 3 CCT measurements by SD-OCT. Both USP and SD-OCT have been performed for only left eyes of 28 of the 50 babies. Those results have been compared with each other. A statistically significant difference was found between the mean CCT measurements by SD-OCT and USP (p < 0.05). The LoA between the SD-OCT and USP measurements ranged from 11.4 to -64.1. Conclusions. CCT can be measured using the iVue SD-OCT system with a high level of repeatability. Although measurement of CCT by SD-OCT and USP is highly correlated, the 2 systems cannot be used interchangeably in premature infants.