ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1565740
This article is part of the Research TopicImaging in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Eye DiseasesView all 22 articles
Reproducibility and Accuracy of Corneal Curvature Measurements in Patients With and Without Dry Eye: A Device-Based Study
Provisionally accepted
Xuemei Zhang1,2
Kunhong Xiao1,2
Taichen Lai1,2
Rongyong Zhang2Mengxue Huang2Ying Xue1,2
Li Li1,2*Huiying Rao1,2*- 1Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
- 2Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
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Purpose: To evaluate the reproducibility and accuracy of corneal curvature measurements using five different devices in patients with and without dry eye disease (DED), and to identify the most reliable device for clinical use in dry eye patients.Methods: This study included 68 eyes from dry eyeDED patients (dry eyeDED group) and 48 eyes from non-dry eyeDED patients (non-dry eyeDED group). Corneal curvature was measured with five devices: Corneal topography, ARK-1a, IOL master 700, OPD-Scan III, Pentacam. A total of 580 examination reports were collected. Reproducibility was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), and accuracy was evaluated using Bland-Altman analyses. Differences between devices were examined through paired-sample t-tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests.Results: In both groups, the ICCs for ARK-1a, IOL Master 700, OPD-Scan III, and Pentacam were all >0.9, indicating high reproducibility. Compared to the dry eyeDED group, the non-dry eyeDED group generally had narrower confidence intervals. Bland-Altman analyses showed that the 95% limits of agreement (LOA) were wider in the dry eyeDED group, indicating greater variability. However, the LOA of IOL Master 700 and OPD-Scan III remained below 1.0 in the dry eye DED group, suggesting higher reliability and potential clinical advantages.Conclusions: Dry eye significantly affects the reliability of corneal curvature measurements, especially with optical reflection-based devices. Corneal topography and Pentacam are more sensitive to tear film abnormalities, while the IOL Master 700 and OPD-Scan III show more consistent results, making them preferable for clinical practice, such as clinical applications including refractive surgery planning, contact lens fitting, and preoperative cataract assessment.
Keywords: Dry eye disease, reproducibility, Multiple device, corneal curvature, Tear film
Received: 23 Jan 2025; Accepted: 23 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Xiao, Lai, Zhang, Huang, Xue, Li and Rao. 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:
Li Li, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
Huiying Rao, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.