AIMS—To investigate the ability of a telecentric keratometer to describe the asphericity and curvature of convex ellipsoidal surfaces and human corneas. METHODS—22 conicoidal convex surfaces and 30 human corneas were examined by conventional keratometry. Additional keratometric measurements were made when the surface was tilted in the horizontal plane relative to the instrument optical axis. This resulted in a series of radius measurements derived from different regions of the surface. These measurements were used to determine the apical radius and the p value of the horizontal meridian of each surface. The results were compared with those derived from measurements using the EyeSys videokeratoscope and form Talysurf analysis. The method was repeated on 30 human corneas and the results compared with those of a videokeratoscope. RESULTS—For the aspheric buttons, the keratometric and the EyeSys results tended to give higher values for both apical radius and the p values than those of the Talysurf analysis. The best agreement was between the Talysurf and the keratometer where the results were not significantly different. For the human corneas, the apical radii were significantly different comparing the keratometer with the videokeratoscope but the p values were not significantly different. CONCLUSION—The keratometric method for assessing curvature and asphericity appears to hold promise as a method for quantifying the corneal topography.
