Correlation Established Between Lens Vault and Various Ocular Parameters

Lens vault (LV) possesses a significant positive correlation with patient age and lens thickness (LT) and a negative correlation with anterior chamber volume (ACV) and anterior chamber depth (ACD), according to a study published in the Journal of Optometry. The investigators behind the study suggest that this metric should be measured and analyzed in concert with other ocular parameters for some patients.

Researchers prospectively measured LV and assessed its correlation with various ocular parameters in the right eyes of 67 healthy patients (mean age 41.9±12.4, 100% White). Each patient had 5 consecutive measurements of LV, ACD, ACV LT, axial length (AL), white-to-white (WTW) distance, central corneal thickness (CCT), and spur-to-spur (STS) distance. 

The mean LV was 0.26±0.23 mm (ranging from -0.24 mm to 0.78 mm). A significant negative correlation was revealed between LV and ACD (R=-0.80, P<.001), AL (R=-0.36, P=.002), and ACV (R=-0.68, P<.001), along with  a positive correlation between LV and LT (R=0.67, P<.001), and age (R=0.53, P<.001). No statistically significant correlation was found between LV and WTW (R=-0.17, P=.15), CCT (R=0.11, P=.36) or STS (R=-0.10, P=.41).

“Our findings revealed that LV is significantly correlated with different ocular parameters such as ACD, AL, ACV, LT, and age. We believe that LV measurement should be part of any clinical routine examination both for diagnosis and prior to certain refractive surgeries, such as phakic intraocular lens implantation,” according to the researchers.

The study’s main limitation was its relatively small sample size and focused population consisting of only healthy White patients. Also, the study utilized the subjective method of manual scleralspur localization.  

Reference

Tañá-Rivero P, Ruiz-Mesa R, Aguilar-Córcoles S, Tello-Elordi C, Ramos-Alzamora M, Montés-Micó R. Lens-vault analysis and its correlation with other biometric parameters using swept-source OCT. J Optom. Published online November 1, 2021. doi:10.1016/j.optom.2021.04.001