TY - JOUR T1 - Central corneal thickness and correlation to optic disc size: a potential link for susceptibility to glaucoma JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol SP - 26 LP - 28 DO - 10.1136/bjo.2006.106039 VL - 91 IS - 1 AU - M Pakravan AU - A Parsa AU - M Sanagou AU - C F Parsa Y1 - 2007/01/01 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/91/1/26.abstract N2 - Aims: To evaluate a possible relationship between central corneal thickness (CCT) and optic disc area in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Methods: Patients with POAG underwent eye examination, optic disc imaging with the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II (HRT II) and ultrasound corneal pachymetry. Exclusion criteria were prior ocular surgery and low-quality HRT II images (HRT standard deviation (SD) >50). Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the associations between CCT and optic disc area. Results: 212 eyes of 137 patients with POAG were examined. In all, 66 (48%) subjects were women, 104 (76%) were Caucasian, 26 (19%) African-American and 7 (5%) other races. 72 eyes remained after excluding those with prior intraocular surgery and low-quality HRT II images. In a univariate analysis of this group, CCT was inversely correlated with optic disc surface area (Pearson’s correlation coefficient r = −0.284, p = 0.036, n = 72). Mean (SD) disc area was 2 (0.53) mm2 (n = 160). Caucasians had significantly smaller discs (p<0.001) than other races (Caucasian 1.9 (0.47) mm2 (n = 119), African-Americans 2.4 (0.54) mm2 (n = 31), other races 2.3 (0.45) mm2 (n = 10)). Conclusion: CCT is inversely correlated to optic disc area. Although thicker corneas have been recognised to cause slight overestimation of true intraocular pressure (IOP), they may also indicate the presence of a substantially smaller, and thus more robust, optic nerve head. People with thinner corneas which slightly underestimate the true IOP may also have larger and more deformable optic discs. ER -