The Significance Of Central Corneal Thickness In Determining Glaucoma Severity

Objective: To determine whether central corneal thickness is related to the level of glaucoma severity and to evaluate the effect of CCT on the clinical treatment of glaucoma patients. Methods: A prospective study was performed on 36 primary chronic angle-closure glaucoma patients who have come to our hospital consecutively. We recorded each patient's age, gender, family history of glaucoma , visual acuity, spherical equivalent, intraocular pressures, CCT, visual field data and vertical cup-disc ratios. We separated all the patients into two groups depended on CCT(CCT<550μm and CCT≥550 μm , because the average CCT of human eye is about 550μm) and used the Kaplan-Meier statistics to analyze the relationship between each factor and the time with glaucoma in different group with different CCT. We also analyze other factors that all can influence the results of our research. Results: The everage age is 52.43±11.51. For different CCT groups (CCT<550μm and CCT≥550 μm ), there are obvious differences in statistic on the developing of visual field and the vertical cup-disc ratios. From the survival curve, we can see obviously that the loss of the visual field and the enlarge of the vertical cup-disc ratios are severier along with time in the patients CCT<550μm than in those CCT≥550 μm. But there were no obvious differences in statistic on the developing of the visual acuity and the intraocular pressure in different groups along with time. Other factors such as the spherical equivalent and the time of chronic angle-closure glaucoma can't influence the results of our research, because there were no significant differences between two groups. Conclusions: Central corneal thickness is a significant factor in determining glaucoma severity and it can be a guide line for prognosis and treatment of glaucoma. We can manage special treatment for each glaucoma patient depended on their CCT.