ABSTRACT
Objective To measure biomechanical parameters of the cornea after keratoconus and laser corneal refractive surgery by Scheimpflug noncontact tonometry (Corvis ST),and analyze the changes and differences in these parameters.Methods From April 2011 to November 2016,63 patients (96 eyes) with clinically diagnosed as keratoconus were selected as the keratoconus group,and 60 patients (120 eyes) underwent laser corneal refractive surgery between November 2016 to March 2017 were selected as postoperative cornea group,and totally 51 healthy person (102 eyes) who received physical examination during the same period were selected as healthy cornea group.Scheimpflug noncontact tonometry (Corvis ST) was performed to measure the length of appl 1,length of appl 2,velocity of appl 1,velocity of appl 2,maximum deformation amplitude,apex distance and radius of curvature in the three groups.Total comparison of biomechanical parameters was performed using ANOVA test among the three groups,while pairwise comparison was performed to analyze the difference of these parameters by SNK methods.Pearson or Spearman correlation analysis was applied to assess the differences in corneal morphological and biomechanical parameters.Results There was no significant difference in length of appl 1,length of appl 2 of the three groups (all P ＞ 0.05).And velocity of appl 1 in the keratoconus group was significantly higher than that of the healthy cornea group [(0.189 ± 0.230) m · s-1 vs.(0.151 ± 0.017)m · s-1] (P ＜ 0.05).As for velocity of appl 2,the keratoconus group was larger than the healthy cornea group,both which were larger than the postoperative cornea group,and the differences were significant (all P ＜ 0.05).And this was true of maximum deformation amplitude in the three groups,with the significant differences(all P ＜ 0.05).The apex distance in the keratoconus group was significantly longer than that in the healthy cornea group (P ＜ 0.05).The radius of curvature of the keratoconus group,postoperative cornea group and healthy cornea group were (5.696 ± 0.881) mm,(7.129 ± 0.681) mm and (7.012 ± 0.728) ram,respectively,which approached significant differences(all P ＜ 0.05).There was significant correlation between the anterior surface refractive power (Km) and apex distance and radius of curvature in the keratoconus group (r =-0.205,0.1 84;P =0.023,0.041),and maximum posterior surface elevation had a statistically significant correlation with velocity of appl 2,maximum deformation amplitude and radius of curvature (r =-0.579,-0.307,0.256,P =0.022,0.002,0.000).For the eyes in the postoperative cornea group,there were no significance correlation between the anterior surface refractive power (Km) and biomechanical properties (P ＞ 0.05),but significant correlation with length of appl 2 (r =-0.297,P =0.026).There were no significant correlation between maximum posterior surface elevation and biomechanical properties (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion The corneal biomechanical parameters are decreased in eyes after keratoconus and laser corneal refractive surgery,and Corvis ST can become an auxiliary examination tool for earlier diagnosis of secondary keratoconus after corneal refractive surgery.