Delicate balance: the relationship between internal astigmatism and lens astigmatism

Abstract

Background: Due to lack of equipment for directly measuring crystal morphology, there has been little research on crystal astigmatism. The purpose of this study was to accurately explore the correlation between internal astigmatism and lens astigmatism in patients with ametropia. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in the Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, China, in September 2020. Diopter values (refractive astigmatism, RA) of patients with ametropia was recorded, and the corneal and lens biological parameters were measured by CASIA2 (corneal/anterior segment optical correlation tomography analyzer). Biometric parameters, including the total corneal astigmatism (TCA), anterior and posterior curvature radius of the lens (ACL, PCL), internal astigmatism (IA), anterior and posterior astigmatism of the lens (AAL, PAL) were measured. Grouping and comparisons were made according to gender and age. Results: In total, 151 participants (293 eyes) were included in the analysis. There were significant (P<0.05) differences in the IA (Z=-2.194, P=0.028) according to gender, but not in the other parameters. By age group, there were statistically significant differences in the TCA (H=10.609, P=0.005), IA (F=3.722, P=0.025), and PAL (H=8.254, P=0.016), but not in the others. The IA was positively correlated with the age (r=0.155, P=0.008), RA (r=0. 534, P<0.001), AAL (r=0.308, P<0.001), and was negatively correlated with the TCA (r=-0.244, P<0.001). The regression equation between the IA and AAL was: Y (IA) =-0.626 +0.447X (AAL). Conclusions: There is a delicate balance between internal astigmatism and intraocular astigmatism. There were no significant differences in the other parameters except IA for different gender groups. For different ages, there are symbol differences in the TCA, IA and PAL, but not in the other parameters. In the analysis of IA with lens astigmatism, it was found that internal astigmatism was mainly related to AAL, but not to PAL.