Evaluation Of Limbal Microstructure In Early Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis Patients Using Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography
Published 2025 - 43rd Congress of the ESCRS
Reference: PO613 | Type: Free paper | DOI: 10.82333/tz2f-aa70
Authors: Mi Tian* 1 , Xiaoyu Zhang 1 , Ling Sun 1 , Yang Shen 1 , Xingtao Zhou 1
1Eye and ENT hospital of Fudan University,Shanghai,China
Purpose
To determine the utility of SD-OCT for detecting subclinical changes in limbal microstructure in early VKC
Setting
Tertiary eye care centre
Methods
Cross-sectional study enrolled 50 eyes of 50 patients with Grade 0/1 VKC and normal limbal morphology on slit-lamp exam, and 30 normal controls. RTVue-100 OCT was used to scan the cornea and each quadrant of limbus (radial & tangential). Primary outcome measure was limbal epithelial thickness (LET) in each quadrant. Secondary outcome measures were Palisades of Vogt (POV) morphology and corneal epithelial thickness (CET).
Results
VKC group had significantly lower LET than controls in the superior (110.8 ± 12.41 μ vs 125.26 ± 14.45 μ; P=0.03) and inferior quadrant (96.69 ± 13.82 μ vs 118.43 ±10.69 μ; P=0.03 ). Abnormal POV morphology was observed in 85% of VKC versus 6% of controls. VKC group showed significantly higher CETMaximum-Minimum (P=0.006) and standard deviation (P=0.005). Central CET was comparable
Conclusions
SD‐ASOCT is a valuable, non-invasive tool for detecting subclinical limbal microstructural changes, suggestive of alterations in limbal stem cell niche, in the early stages of VKC, without visible limbal involvement.