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Abstract
The corneal stromal lesions of a case of lattice dystrophy that fulfilled all the clinical and histopathologic criteria of this disease were examined by light and electron microscopy. The lesions were found to consist of two distinct parts: (1) a nonbirefringent mass of disoriented filaments of approximately one-third the diameter of normal stronmal collagen fibrils and (2) a second, birefringent part containing modified stromal lamellas with highly oriented fibrils of normal diameter but increased density. These observations suggest that the normal collagen fibril separates into filaments of smaller diameter ("fibrillary degeneration").