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Wavefront aberrations of the anterior corneal surface and the total cornea were measured with the Pentacam AXL (Oculus Optikger\u00e4te GmbH, Wetzlar, Germany), and calculated for the 6\u00a0mm central corneal zone. In addition, the COD (corneal light backscatter measured in grey scale units) of the anterior 120\u00a0\u00b5m of the central 0\u20132\u00a0mm, 2\u20136\u00a0mm, and 6\u201310\u00a0mm of the cornea was evaluated. Corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) was correlated with wavefront aberrations and COD using Spearman correlation analysis.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      EBMD resulted in significant higher peak-to-valley (PTV; median: 15.0 [interquartile range: 9] \u00b5m), square root of the sum of the squared higher-order aberrations (RMS-HOA; 0.77 [0.52] \u00b5m), astigmatism (1.06 [1.04] \u00b5m), coma (0.41 [0.44] \u00b5m), and trefoil (0.28 [0.40] \u00b5m) (all\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009\u2264\u20090.01). A moderate correlation was found especially between CDVA and PTV as well as RMS-HOA. EBMD led to a statistically significant higher COD (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009&lt;\u20090.01) in the central corneal 6-mm and correlated moderately with CDVA outcomes.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our study revealed a significant correlation between elevated wavefront aberrations and backscattering in eyes affected by epithelial basement membrane dystrophy. While COD demonstrates potential for diagnostic purposes, additional studies are necessary to ascertain its specificity and distinguish EBMD from other ocular surface disorders.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1007\/s10792-025-03896-6","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,7]],"date-time":"2026-01-07T05:21:37Z","timestamp":1767763297000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Analysis of corneal wavefront aberrations and corneal densitometry in eyes with epithelial basement membrane dystrophy"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"46","author":[{"given":"Klemens Paul","family":"Kaiser","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jakob","family":"Wend","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Myriam","family":"B\u00f6hm","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Kohnen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ingo","family":"Schmack","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"3896_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"466","DOI":"10.1097\/ICO.0000000000003420","volume":"43","author":"JS Weiss","year":"2024","unstructured":"Weiss JS, Rapuano CJ, Seitz B et al (2024) IC3D classification of corneal dystrophies-edition 3. 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T.K: Consultant, Research and Lecturing for Alcon, Oculus, Schwind, Staar. Consultant and Lecturing for Tarsus, Ziemer. Research and Lecturing for Teleon Surgical. Consulting for Abbvie, Geuder, LensGen, Santen, Stadapharm, Thieme, Zeiss Meditec. Lecturing for Allergan, Bausch & Lomb, Johnson & Johnson, MedUpdate, streamedup. All other authors (J.W., M.B., I.S.) have no financial or non-financial interests to declare.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Conflict of interest"}}],"article-number":"61"}}