Optical Assessment Of Tear Film Thickness In Healthy And Keratoconic Eyes Using Scheimpflug Oct Imaging
Published 2026 - 44th Congress of the ESCRS
Reference: POCOR375 | Type: Free paper | DOI: 10.82333/9d25-jh56
Authors: Dr Sunayana Narasimha Murthy* 1 , A/Prof. ROHIT SHETTY 1 , Dr ABHIJEET SINHA ROY 2
1REFRACTIVE SURGERY,NARAYANA NETHRALAYA,BANGALORE,India, 2Imaging, Biomechanics and mathematical modelling solutions lab,NARAYANA NETHRALAYA,BANGALORE,India
Purpose
To quantify tear film thickness (TFT) in early keratoconus (KC) and healthy eyes and correlate with tear biomarkers.
Setting
study done at a tertiary hospital setting, between july 2025 - sept 2025
Methods
Prospective, case-control, single-centre study of 100 eyes which were included and grouped into early KC (n=50) and healthy eyes (n=50). Imaging was with Pentacam OCT, a Scheimpflug based ultra-high resolution, widefield OCT with axial resolution of ~1.4µm and scan diameter of 12mm. Custom edge detection and segmentation software were developed to calculate TFT. 25 radial OCT B-scans were also acquired. Additionally, tear samples were analysed for 8 biomarkers. AI predicted scores were derived from these biomarkers.
Results
In central 5 mm zone of imaging, the mean TFT was found to be 3.09 (KC) and 3.16 µm(healthy). As zone size increased, mean TFT decreased in KC patients (p<0.05). It was also found that all biomarkers were elevated in KC eyes. MMP-9 strongly correlated with the AI predicted score (Spearman correlation coefficient r = 0.684, P = 0.0291) in KC.
Conclusions
A new Scheimpflug based optical imaging technique can be used to quantify TFT and correlate with incidence of ocular inflammation. Using AI models, one could support treatment of patient symptoms in healthy and KC eyes.