Exophthalmometric references of 7-18 year-old children in Kayseri, Turkey.

AIM: To produce age and gender specific exophthalmos references for Turkish children aged 7-18 years old.

STUDY

DESIGN

This was a preliminary cross-sectional study. Data were obtained from the second study of the Determination of Anthropometric Measurements of Turkish Children and Adolescents (DAMTCA II). A Hertel exophthalmometer was used and age and gender specific standard deviations (SD) and percentiles were calculated.

RESULTS

The 3rd, 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 85th, 90th, 95th 97th percentiles of right and left eye protrusion, and the mean and SD for each age and gender were calculated. In comparison of eyes and genders: Protrusion in the right eye was 14.81 (1.68), and 14.65 (1.67) in the left eye for boys. Protrusion in the right eye was 14.95 (1.68) and 14.75 (1.67) in the left eye of girls. In both genders the difference in protrusion of the two eyes was statistically significant (p <0.001). Exophthalmometric measurements were compared for pubertal periods by one-way analysis of variance and a significant difference was found in exophthalmos between pubertal periods for both eyes and gender (p <0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Age and gender specific references for exophthalmia provide information for both clinical decision process and screening in describing abnormal or pathological conditions resulting in exophthalmos.