Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the stromal corneal findings in 3 different cross-linking techniques (epi-off, trans-epithelial and iontophoresis-assisted).
Methods :
18 eyes of 18 keratoconus patients (group A) were treated by epi-off corss-linking technique, 15 eyes of 15 keratoconus patients (group B) were treated by trans-epithelial crosslinking technique and 22 eyes of 26 keratoconus patients (group C) were treated by iontophoresis-assisted cross-linking technique. All eyes were examined with the confocal microscope (Confoscan 4, Fortune Technologies, Italy), a central scan of the total corneal thickness was taken before, 1 week and 1 month after cross-linking treatment. Corneal stroma was evaluated by using the Navis v. 3.5.0. Software (NIDEK, Multi-Instrument Diagnostic System, Japan).
Results :
In group A we found, after cross-linking treatment, activated keratocites from superficial stroma to 275.1 ± 85.9 µm stromal depth at 1 week and from superficial stroma to 324.9 ± 66.0 µm stromal depth at 1 month after treatment. In group B and group C we did not found activated keratocites in all stromal depth at 1 week and 1 month after cross-linking treatment.
Conclusions :
Activated keratocites were found at the corneal stroma in patients treated after epi-off cross-linking technique, in contrast patients treated with trans-epithelial and iontophoresis-assisted crosslinking techniques did not show activated keratocites at the corneal stroma after treatment.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.