Topographic and specular microscopic evaluation of cornea and meibomian gland morphology in children with isolated growth hormone deficiency.

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether the anterior segment topographic measurements, meibomian gland (MG), and non-invasive tear film break-up time (NITFBUT) differ between healthy children and children with isolated growth hormone deficiency (GHD).

METHODS

A total of 74 eyes of 37 children with GHD and 84 eyes of 42 age- and sex-matched healthy children were included in the study. The spherical equivalence (SE), mean keratometry (Km), corneal thickness, corneal volume (CV), anterior chamber depth (ACD), topographic NITFBUT, qualitative and quantitative MG measurements, corneal endothelial cell density (CD), and proportion of hexagonal cells (HG) were analysed.

RESULTS

The mean SE level of GHD group was similar between groups (p = 0.017). Back Km values were insignificantly steep in children with GHD (p = 0.004, with Bonferroni correction). Specular microscopy analysis was not different between groups. MG loss of GHD group were higher than control group (p < 0.001). The MG morphology analysis and distortion grade were not different between groups (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results showed that the growth hormone (GH) may have an important role on the anterior segment parameters; however, it is not clear that this misregulation leads to a clinical scenario in childhood. Future studies investigating GHD and/or GH therapy on the ocular surface system are required to clearly demonstrate basic mechanism of GH action.