Central corneal thickness measurements in phakic, pseudophakic, and aphakic children with ultrasound pachymetry and different non-contact devices

Aims Evidence for choosing a satisfactory device for central corneal thickness (CCT) measurement in children particularly pseudophakic and aphakic ones is insufficient. The aim of this study is to compare four differently measured CCTs obtained using ultrasound pachymetry (UP), Pentacam, partial coherence interferometry (PCI), and specular microscopy (SM) in phakic, pseudophakic, and aphakic children and assess the agreement between the six pairs of the methods. Methods Children with history of cataract surgery at age six or younger and phakic children were recruited into this study. CCT was measured using UP (Optikon 2000, Rome, Italy), Pentacam (Oculus Inc, Wetzlar, Germany), PCI (IOLMaster 700, Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Jena, Germany), and SM (Topcon SP-3000P; Topcon Corporation, Japan). Results One-hundred two eyes (53 phakic, 29 pseudophakic, and 20 aphakic eyes) were included. The mean ages (+/- SD) of phakic, pseudophakic, and aphakic cases were 9.75 (+/- 3.3), 9.9 (+/- 2.3), and 8.2 (+/- 2.8) years, respectively. The mean CCTs (+/- SE) for phakic children using Pentacam, PCI, UP, and SM were 549.7 (+/- 5.0), 546.5 (+/- 4.5), 565.9 (+/- 5.5), and 506.2 (+/- 4.4) mu m, respectively, for pseudophakic cases were 570.1 (+/- 6.4), 565.0 (+/- 6.1), 571.9 (+/- 6.3), and 524.3 (+/- 6.3) mu m, respectively, and for aphakic participants were 635.3 (+/- 14.2), 635.4 (+/- 14.5), 649.0 (+/- 13.5), and 589.1 (+/- 13.3) mu m, respectively. Conclusion Compared to Pentacam and PCI, SM underestimated CCT particularly in phakic and pseudophakic children, whereas UP slightly overestimated CCT especially in phakic and aphakic children. Furthermore, Pentacam and PCI had the closest agreement. By contrast, SM had the poorest agreement with the other three methods.