Central corneal thickness in high myopia

PURPOSE: To examine if central corneal thickness (CCT) is different in emmetropia and high myopia. METHODS: 57 emmetropic subjects (0 to + 1.5 D) and 48 high myopes (all more than - 6 D in spherical equivalent refraction) were studied. CCT was measured by a Haag-Streit Optical Low-Coherence Reflectometry (OLCR) pachymeter, a recently developed high precision pachymeter with a standard deviation (SD) for repeated measurements of 1 microm. RESULTS: Mean CCT for the emmetropic group was 538.6 microm (SD = 32.1), and for the myopic group 527.7 microm (SD = 35.0). Neither the mean CCT nor the variance from the two groups showed a statistically significant different (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: CCT is not systematically altered in myopia. The process by which the myopia progresses does not to a measurable degree influence the central cornea.