Non-contact specular microscopy of the normal corneal endothelium

Abstract

The corneal endothelium of 179 healthy persons (327 eyes), 4-89 years of age. as photographed through a non-contact specular microscope. From the histograms of the cell areas of each eye, other parameters were derived and subjected to computerized statistical analysis. In addition, photographs of both eyes of one person were taken on two different days and examined to determine the reproducibility of the method. The known age-dependent increase in the mean cell area as well as the decrease of the cell density with age could be confirmed. Other parameters that increase with age are the variability of the mean cell area and the maximum cell area; the latter correlates so well with age and is so easily measured that this parameter may facilitate further morphometric evaluations. For these age-dependent correlations not only regression lines but also third-rank regression curves, which seem to fit better, were calculated. Finally, age-independent parameters were found that may serve as potential additional criteria for a qualitative evaluation of the individual corneal endothelium.

Reliability and reproducibility of corneal endothelial image analysis by in vivo confocal microscopy

“…There is now a large body of literature on the analysis of the cornea by specular microscopy, and this is widely accepted as a safe, well-reproducible, and reliable testing procedure [1,2,3,4,9,12,13,16,17]. An alternative to in vivo corneal analysis is confocal corneal microscopy, which has been introduced into routine clinical practice within the past 10 years [5,10,14,18].…”

Comparison of Corneal Endothelial Cell Images From a Noncontact Specular Microscope and a Scanning Confocal Microscope

“…[9][10][11][12] Confocal microscopes, which have several common design features with specular microscopes, have also been used to examine corneal endothelium, although their use has not been as common as specular microscopes. 13 Nidek recently introduced the ConfoScan 3, a confocal microscope that captures clear images of the corneal endothelium.…”

Cultivation of Human Microvascular Endothelial Cells on Topographical Substrates to Mimic the Human Corneal Endothelium

“…In a particular study of 58 human corneas [38], the mean cell area measured was 334 ± 51 µm 2 (range: 273–553 µm 2 ), while in a separate study of 327 cornea endothelium [39], the mean cell area was reported to be 396 ± 132 µm 2 (range: 157–725 µm 2 ). The cell areas of the HMVEC monolayers have larger values, with means above 800 µm 2 (Figure 4A,B).…”