ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1572326
This article is part of the Research TopicOcular Surgery and Ocular Surface Disease: A Mutual RelationshipView all 3 articles
Normative Distribution of Corneal Epithelial Thickness on 9mm OCT Maps
Provisionally accepted
Claudia R Morgado
Marcony R. Santhiago*- University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
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This prospective observational study comprehensively characterized the normative distribution of corneal epithelial thickness using 9-mm spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) maps. Data were collected from 283 eyes of refractive surgery candidates who underwent a complete ophthalmologic evaluation, including SD-OCT imaging. The analysis revealed a mean central corneal epithelial thickness of 53.34 μm (SD ±3.26 μm), exhibiting a heterogeneous distribution with significantly thicker measurements in inferior compared to superior regions. This distribution followed a Gaussian pattern, with the thickest measurements consistently observed in the central and inferior regions. The study also revealed statistically significant differences in central corneal epithelial thickness between males (54.11 μm) and females (52.64 μm). A weak but significant negative correlation was observed between superior epithelial thickness and age. This detailed analysis of corneal epithelial thickness across multiple zones within a large sample provides valuable normative data essential for clinical practice and future research in corneal pathology. The established normative reference values are critical for accurately identifying deviations in epithelial thickness associated with conditions such as keratoconus.
Keywords: Corneal epithelium, Optical Coherence Tomography, normal epithelium, Cornea, Normal eye
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 25 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Morgado and Santhiago. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Marcony R. Santhiago, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
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