Purpose: Use the anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) to evaluate the
tear meniscus parameters, total corneal thickness (CT), and epithelial thickness in active and
inactive thyroid eye disease (TED) patients and compare them with age-matched controls.
Patients and methods: This is a prospective case-control clinical study in which the subjects
were divided into three groups, group I of inactive thyroid patients, group II of active thyroid patients,
and group III of healthy controls. The AS-OCT was used to measure lower tear meniscus
parameters (tear meniscus height (TMH), tear meniscus depth (TMD), and tear meniscus area
(TMA)), total CT, and epithelial thickness. Results: All tear meniscus parameters (TMH, TMD,
and TMA) were reduced in groups I and II with more reduction in group II with no significant
difference between them with a significant difference when comparing groups I and II with group < br />III. The mean total CT was 496.7±19.9 in group I, 497.8±20.6 in group II, and 520.3±23.9 in group III
with no significant difference (p-value = 0.757) between groups I and II while there was a
significant difference when compared with healthy controls. The mean epithelial thickness was
46.5±2.6 in group I, 47.3±2.7 in group II, and 53.2±4.5 in group III with no significant difference
between groups I and II while there was a significant difference when compared with healthy control.
Conclusion: TED patients had reduced tear film parameters regardless of the thyroid activity, also
the total CT and epithelial thickness was thinner in comparison with healthy controls.