Anterior Chamber Depth And Its Associations With Ocular And General Parameters In Adults In Rural Central India. The Central India Eye And Medical Study

1. Vinay Nangia¹
2. Jost Jonas^{1, 2}
3. Rajesh Gupta¹
4. Anshu Khare¹
5. Ajit Sinha¹

¹Suraj Eye Institute, Nagpur, India
²Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany

Purpose: To investigate the normative data of anterior chamber depth and its associations in adults in rural Central India in a population based study.

Methods: The Central India Eye and Medical Study included 4711 subjects (aged 30+ years) of 5885 eligible individuals (response rate, 80.1%). The subjects underwent an ophthalmologic examination including measurement of the anterior chamber depth by sonography.

Results: After excluding pseudophakic or aphakic eyes, anterior chamber depth measurements were available for 9057 eyes of 4615 (98.0%) subjects with a mean age of 49.1±13.2 years (range:30-100 years) and a mean refractive error of -0.11±1.77 diopters (range:-21.75 to +7.75 diopters). Mean anterior chamber depth (ACD) was 3.22 ± 0.34 mm. In multivariate analysis, a shallow chamber depth was significantly associated with higher age (P<0.001), female gender (P<0.001), shorter body stature (P=0.003), hyperopic refractive error (P<0.001), higher lens thickness (P<0.001), and shorter axial length (P<0.001).

Conclusions: In the rural Central Indian population, a shallow anterior chamber was associated with higher age, female gender, short body stature, hyperopia, thick lens, and shorter axial length. As a corollary, the anterior chamber angle was narrower in elderly female hyperopic subjects with a short axial length. Compared with population-based data from East Asia (China), the anterior chamber was markedly deeper in India. The data may be helpful to explain anatomic relationships of the anterior segment of the eye, to elucidate risk factors of angle-closure glaucoma, and to explain ethnic differences in the prevalence of angle-closure glaucoma.