Purpose

To evaluate the anterior chamber depth (ACD) measurements in emmetropic, hypermetropic and myopic eyes in children and adolescents using optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Material and methods

86 patients at the age from 4 to 17 years were examined. 27 patients with mean age 14.0 ± 2.94 years had myopia with spherical equivalent refraction (RE) from -0.50 to – 19.50 D (mean RE = -8.63 ± 3.89 D). 29 patients with mean age 8.7 ± 1.95 years had hypermetropia with RE from +0.50 to +9.00 D (mean RE = +4.49 ± 2.11 D). 30 patients control group) with mean age 9.8 ± 1.03 years had emmetropia. The anterior chamber depth was measured by OCT Visante. In myopic eyes measurements of axial length were obtained using ultrasound A scan.

Results

172 eyes (86 subjects) were evaluated. The mean ACD measurement was 3.18 ± 0.31 mm in myopic eyes, 2.73 ± 0.2 mm in hypermetropic eyes, and 2.92 ± 0.11 mm in emmetropic eyes. There were significant differences in ACD between these three groups of eyes (p< 0.01). ACD was correlated with spherical equivalent refraction (Spearman correlation, r = -0.688, p< 0.001), and axial length (r = 0.388, p = 0.003) in myopic eyes. There were no statistically significant differences in ACD between 30 eyes of 15 patients with anisometropia >3.00 D.

Conclusions

There were significant differences in ACD between emmetropic, hypermetropic and myopic eyes in children and adolescents. ACD was associated with refractive error and axial length in the eyes with myopia. Further observations are necessary on larger number of patients.