ABSTRACT
Central corneal thickness (CCT) is an essential tool in the assessment and management of corneal disease. CCT has thus become very important for the interpretation of intraocular pressure and prerefractive procedure assessment; however little is known about its distribution within a population with wide range of refractive errors. Therefore the objective is to study the correlation of CCT with a broad range of refractive errors in rural population of Haryana. Methods: Prospective analysis of patients with refractive error presenting to the Ophthalmology outpatient services were included as cases. Age and sex matched emmetropic subjects were included as controls. Both cases and controls were undertaken for CCT measurements by ultrasonic pachymetry. Results: A total of 187 eyes as cases, 101 as controls. Among cases, 122 eyes myopic (Group- 1) (Mean CCT= 531.80±37.83 μ) and 65 hypermetropic (Group- 2) (Mean CCT=549.66±45.66 μ). The results shows that the central corneal thickness was decreased in the myopic eyes in comparison to the normal eyes which was statistically significantly (p=0.001). However in the hypermetropic group, no correlation was found between central corneal thickness and degree of hypermetropia. Conclusion: This study provides pilot data of CCT in different types of refractive errors in our set of rural population which helps us in understanding the variation of CCT with refractive errors.