Ocular biometric characteristics of cataract patients in western China

Background: We aimed to measure ocular biometric characteristics in older cataract patients from western China. Methods: Ocular biometry records were retrospectively analyzed for 6933 patients with cataracts (6933 eyes) at least 50 years old who were treated at West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Results: Partial coherence laser interferometry gave the following population averages: axial length (AL), 24.32 +/- 2. 42 mm; anterior chamber depth (ACD), 3.08 +/- 0.47 mm; keratometric power (K), 44.23 +/- 1.66 diopters; and corneal astigmatism (CA), 1.00 +/- 0.92 diopters. The percentage of individuals with AL > 26.5 mm was 13.66%, while the percentage with CA > 1.0 diopters was 35.54%. Mean AL and ACD showed a trend of decrease with increasing age (P < 0.001). AL correlated positively with ACD (Spearman coefficient, 0.542) and CA (0.111), but negatively with K (-0.411) (all P < 0.01). K also correlated negatively with ACD (-0.078, P < 0.01). Conclusions: These results show, for the first time, that older cataract patients from western China have similar ocular biometric characteristics as other populations. The high prevalence of severe axial myopia warrants further investigation.