Normal standards of eye projection in Turkish children 6 to 17 years of age.

Background: There are a few international and Turkish reports on children's eye projection references.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Data were obtained from the second study of the Determination of Anthropometric Measurements of Turkish Children and Adolescents study group (DAMTCA II).The study population was 4,533 primary and secondary school students aged 6 to 18 years (2,512 girls, 2,021 boys). A Hertel exophthalmometer was used; age- and gender-specific means and standard deviations and percentiles were calculated for eye projection.

Results: The 3rd, 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 80th, 85th, 90th, 95th, and 97th percentiles of right and left eye projection, and the mean and standard deviation for each age and gender were calculated. In 6-year-old children, the smoothed eye projection of the 3rd-97th percentiles for the right and left eye in boys were detected as 11.2 mm-17.0 mm for right eye and 11.1 mm-17.0 mm for left eye. In 17-year-old male adolescents, the 3rd-97th percentiles were detected as 11.9 mm-19.5 mm for the right eye and 11.8 mm-19.2 mm for the left eye. The 3rd-97th percentiles in 6-year-old girls were detected as 11.1 mm-17.1 mm for the right eye and 10.9 mm-17.1 mm for the left eye. In 17-year-old girls, the 3rd-97th percentiles were detected as 11.7 mm-19.4 mm for the right eye and 11.8-19.2 mm for the left eye.

Conclusions: Age- and gender-specific references for exophthalmos provide important information both for the clinical decision-making process, and screening in the diagnosis of abnormal or pathological conditions which result in exophthalmos.