Abstract
Purpose :
To determine how different demographic factors influence corneal endothelial cell density in donor corneas..
Methods :
Corneal donor information from the SightLife Eye Bank was collected for 34,497 donor eyes between 2012-2015. Demographics, time of death to preservation, endothelial cell density, lens status, medical history, and transplant suitability were collected for each donor. Gender and race were used to examine associations with ECD. Tests of association were adjusted for covariates using logistic regression including age, race, and gender. Repeated measures analysis was used to account for within-individual correlation between left and right eyes from the same donor.
Results :
Following exclusion for missing data points, a total of 27,948 donor corneal grafts were included in analysis. Mean ECD was 2,733 cells/mm2 and mean age was 59 years old. Logistical regression analysis demonstrated a reduction in ECD by 10.09 cells/mm2 per year of age (p<0.0001) in donor corneas. There was no statistically significant association between gender and ECD. Among ethnicity groupings including Caucasian, African American, Asian, and Hispanic groups, the only statistically significant predictor for increased ECD in donor corneas was Asian ethnicity with a mean increase of 79.09 cells/mm2 (p=0.0035). African Americans showed increased ECD, but was not found to be statistically significant (48.319 cells/mm2, p=0.0503.
Conclusions :
This study is the first to show Asian ethnicity as a predictor of increased ECD. There was no statistical difference between other ethnicity groups studied. Increasing age is a well-established predictor for reduced ECD, which was also confirmed by our study. Gender was not a significant predictor of ECD. These data may influence predicting the viability of corneal grafts with respect to donor demographic data.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.