2013 Ocular Immunology & Inflammation, 2013; 21(5): 360–365 ! Informa Healthcare USA, Inc. ISSN: 0927-3948 print / 1744-5078 online DOI: 10.3109/09273948.2013.797472 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Evaluation of Corneal Parameters with Scheimpflug Imaging in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Abdullah Ku ¨r ¸ sat Cingu ¨ 1 , Yasin C ¸ |nar 1 , Fatih Mehmet Tu ¨ rkcu ¨ 1 , Muhammed ¸ Sahin 1 , Sava ¸ s Kaya 2 , Mehtap Bozkurt 3 , Alparslan ¸ Sahin 1 , Harun Yu ¨ ksel 1 , ¸ Seyhmus Ari 1 , and _ Ihsan C ¸ ac ¸a 1 1 Department of Ophthalmology, 2 Department of Immunology, and 3 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey ABSTRACT Purpose: To evaluate corneal parameters of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients by Pentacam-HR. Methods: Seventy RA patients and 100 control subjects were enrolled. All participants underwent Pentacam (Pentacam-HR, Oculus, Germany) evaluation. Both RA and control groups were divided into two subgroups as dry eye (DE) (Schirmer test with topical anesthesia (STA)  5 mm) and without DE (STA45 mm). Results: Pachymetric measurements and the mean corneal volume were significantly lower in RA group (p50.001). Disease duration was negatively correlated with pachymetric measurements in RA group. Pachymetric measurements and corneal volume of RA patients with DE were significantly lower than all the other subgroups. Control subgroups with or without DE were similar in pachymetric measurements and corneal volume. Conclusions: The results suggest that RA patients have thinner corneas compared to control subjects that may be affected by disease duration. Furthermore, coexistence of DE and RA seems to aggravate the thinning of cornea as well. Keywords: Corneal thickness, corneal volume, dry eye, Pentacam-HR, rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common chronic and systemic autoimmune diseases, affecting many tissues and organs, particularly synovial joints. The incidence of RA is 0.01–0.02% in males and 0.02– 0.04% in females. 1 Onset is most frequent in 4th and 5th decades, but people at an age can be affected. Extra-articular involvement of the disease may range from subcutaneous nodules to pulmonary, ocular, cardiovascular, neurological, and cutaneous involve- ment. 2 Ocular involvement of the disease includes dry eye (DE), episcleritis, scleritis, anterior uveitis, and retinal vasculitis. 3 The most common and mild form of ocular involvement in RA is DE from secondary Sjo ¨gren syndrome. Akpek et al. 4 found an associated rheumatic disease in 25.9% of their DE patients in which approximately half were RA. Scleromalasia perforans and corneal melting are rare but serious ocular complications that may also arise following ocular surgeries in RA patients. 5–7 There are some studies about corneal morphology and biomechanics in patients with RA. 8,9 Pentacam is a device that enables us to study corneal architecture comprehen- sively from the three-dimensional model regarding the thickness, volume, and spatial profile by use of Scheimpflug imaging technique. 10 To the best of our knowledge there is no study about corneal parameters of RA patients with Scheimpflug image. We con- ducted this study to measure corneal parameters of RA patients who are asymptomatic other than DE with Scheimpflug imaging (HR Pentacam; Oculus, Germany) and compare them to those of control subjects. Correspondence: Dr. Abdullah Ku ¨r ¸ sat Cingu ¨, School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey. Email: kursatcingu@yahoo.com Received 31 October 2012; revised 19 March 2013; accepted 16 April 2013; published online 4 June 2013 360