Alejandra Consejo1, Marta Jiménez-García2,3, Jos J Rozema2,3. 1. Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. 2. Department of Ophthalmology, Antwerp University Hospital, Edegem, Belgium. 3. Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To compare densitometry distribution analysis (DDA), a platform-independent method to assess corneal transparency, with traditional corneal densitometry. METHODS: A total of 196 healthy participants aged 43.3 ± 18.0 years (range 18-79 years) were recruited for assessment. All participants were assessed using the corneal densitometry analysis add-on to the standard software of the Oculus Pentacam HR. In addition, the Scheimpflug image corresponding to the horizontal meridian of each participant was exported for further analysis. For each image, corneal pixel intensities were statistically modeled. The estimated output parameters, α and β, were compared with the corresponding densitometry values. The analysis was performed considering 3 concentric areas and 3 layers defined at fixed corneal depths. To demonstrate the platform independence of the DDA method, a randomly selected subset of 80 participants also had their eye measured with Oculus Corvis ST. RESULTS: α and β were found to be well correlated with densitometry, especially α (overall cornea; r = 0.89, P < 0.001), independent of the corneal region investigated. Changes in α, β, and corneal densitometry were correlated with age. CONCLUSIONS: In this work, we presented the relationship of DDA with age and traditional corneal densitometry. The α and β parameters, the output of DDA, are platform independent and can be used to investigate corneal clarity objectively.
PURPOSE: To compare densitometry distribution analysis (DDA), a platform-independent method to assess corneal transparency, with traditional corneal densitometry. METHODS: A total of 196 healthy participants aged 43.3 ± 18.0 years (range 18-79 years) were recruited for assessment. All participants were assessed using the corneal densitometry analysis add-on to the standard software of the Oculus Pentacam HR. In addition, the Scheimpflug image corresponding to the horizontal meridian of each participant was exported for further analysis. For each image, corneal pixel intensities were statistically modeled. The estimated output parameters, α and β, were compared with the corresponding densitometry values. The analysis was performed considering 3 concentric areas and 3 layers defined at fixed corneal depths. To demonstrate the platform independence of the DDA method, a randomly selected subset of 80 participants also had their eye measured with Oculus Corvis ST. RESULTS: α and β were found to be well correlated with densitometry, especially α (overall cornea; r = 0.89, P < 0.001), independent of the corneal region investigated. Changes in α, β, and corneal densitometry were correlated with age. CONCLUSIONS: In this work, we presented the relationship of DDA with age and traditional corneal densitometry. The α and β parameters, the output of DDA, are platform independent and can be used to investigate corneal clarity objectively.