[ study of the severity of keratoconus in optometric clinic's patients of Mashhad University of medical sciences]

ABSTRACT

Keratoconus is characterized by thinning and steepening of the central cornea. This study was undertaken to determine the severity of this disease and its relation with age and gender. In a cross sectional study, the data are reviewed from 1485 keratoconic eyes examined at the optometric's clinic of Mashhad University of Medical sciences from 1991 to 2005. The criteria for diagnosis of keratoconus were Irregular corneal astigmatism, scissors retinoscopy reflex, Vogt's striae, Fleischer's ring or central corneal power higher than 47.2 D. The disease severity based on the central keratometry reading classified into mild, moderate, advanced and severe. SPSS software was used for data analyzes. The patient's mean age in this study was 25.33 +/- 8.39 years. From 1485 eyes, 73.1, 20.7, 5.9 and 0.3 percent had mild, moderate, advanced and severe keratoconus respectively. The highest prevalence of this disease was in 20-29 years [49.02 percent] and the lowest was related to over 40 years of age [6.4 percent]. The prevalence of keratoconus in females was higher than males [P< 0.001]. The majority of patients in this study had mild keratoconus and were in 20-29 years and it's prevalence in females were higher than males