Central corneal thickness in black Cameroonian ocular hypertensive and glaucomatous subjects

Christelle Domngang Noche¹, André Omgbwa Eballe², Assumpta Lucienne Bella^3
1Innel Medical Center, ²Faculty of Medicine, University of Douala, ³Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon

Purpose: To evaluate central corneal thickness (CCT) in a black Cameroonian population of ocular hypertensive and glaucomatous subjects.
Material and methods: This was a prospective study undertaken with an ultrasonic pachymeter from January 2009 to December 2009 in an eye clinic (INNEL Medical center) in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Results: One hundred subjects (200 eyes) were enrolled in the study. Sixty subjects were glaucomatous (primary open angle glaucoma, POAG group), and 40 ocular hypertensive (OHT group). The mean age of the sample was 52.60 ± 12.23 years. For the whole sample, CCT was 534.71 ± 37.95 µm in the right eye and 533.61 ± 37.67 µm in the left eye, with no statistically significant difference between the 2 eyes (P = 0.446). CCT in the POAG group was 526.30 ± 37.34 µm in the right eye and 524.90 ± 35.92 µm in the left eye. CCT in the OHT group was 547.32 ± 35.71 µm in the right eye and 546.67 ± 36.85 µm in the left eye. There was a statistically significant difference between CCT of the 2 groups (right eye: P = 0.013; left eye: P = 0.007).
Conclusion: Mean CCT of ocular hypertensive subjects was thicker than CCT of glaucomatous ones in our Cameroonian sample. However, in both ocular hypertensive or glaucomatous patients, CCT of black Cameroonians is thinner than that reported in other studies in Caucasian populations.

Keywords: central corneal thickness, ocular hypertension, glaucoma, black Cameroonian