Ocular Biometry and Refractive Prediction in Short Eyes: A Comparison of Two Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography-Based Biometers

<b><i>Purpose:</i></b> To compare the performance of two swept-source optical coherence tomography-based biometers in the measurement of ocular biometry and the prediction of postoperative refractive errors in eyes with short axial length (AL). <b><i>Methods:</i></b> A total of 48 eyes from 29 patients with AL ≤ 22 mm were included. AL, anterior chamber depth (ACD), keratometry (K), and lens thickness (LT) measured using the IOLMaster^® 700 and ARGOS^® before cataract surgery were compared. The refractive error prediction accuracy of the two devices was also compared. <b><i>Results:</i></b> This study included four men (7 eyes) and 25 women (41 eyes), with an average age of 70.7 ± 8.1 years (mean ± SD; range, 47-82 years). The two devices demonstrated good agreement in measurements of ocular biometry with high intraclass correlation coefficients (AL = 0.975; ACD = 0.957; K = 0.988; LT = 0.994). However, AL and ACD were significantly shorter when measured with the IOLMaster^® 700 compared to the ARGOS^® (<i>p</i> < 0.001 for both). There was no significant difference in mean absolute prediction errors between the two devices (<i>p</i> = 0.423). The IOLMaster^® 700 showed a significantly lower mean prediction error than the ARGOS^® (+0.12 ± 0.39 diopters vs. +0.20 ± 0.39 diopters, <i>p</i> = 0.006), although the difference was of limited clinical relevance. There were no significant differences in the percentages of eyes within ± 0.50 D (77.1% vs. 75.0%, <i>p</i> = 0.811) and ± 1.00 D (100% vs. 97.9%, <i>p</i> = 0.315) of the predicted refractive error. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Although IOLMaster^® 700 and ARGOS^® showed good agreements in eyes with short AL, significant differences were observed in the measurements of AL and ACD. Both devices demonstrated good efficacy and comparable performance in predicting postoperative refractive errors.