·AIM:To investigate the manifestation of high order wavefront aberrations(HOAs)in patients with subclinical keratoconus(SKC).METHODS:It was a case-control study.In this study 20 patients(32 eyes)with SKC was in SKC group and 20 patients(40 eyes)with myopia were selected in the same period as control group.Wavefront aberrations in each eye was measured by OPD Scan ARK-10000(NIDEK,Japan).Statistical analysis was performed to compare the root mean square(RMS)of total ocular HOAs,spherical aberration and coma between 2 groups respectively by Student’s t-test.RESULTS:The RMS of total ocular HOAs,spherical aberration and coma were 0.637±0.488μm,0.276±0.135μm,0.364±0.205μm respectively in SKC group,while that in control group were 0.394±0.282μm,0.113±0.084μm,0.148±0.079μm respectively,the differences were statistically significant(t=2.160,2.341,3.679;P<0.05).Negative spherical aberration was found in 19 eyes in SKC group and 9 eyes in control group,the differences were statistically significant(χ2=10.17;P=0.001).CONCLUSION:The HOAs is significantly higher in eyes with SKC than in myopic eyes.It may be helpful for detecting SKC to measure wavefront aberrations.