Morphmetric analysis of corneal endothelium of hispanic elderly population

Abstract

Purpose : To assess the corneal endothelial morphology and characteristics in normal elderly Mexican eyes.

Methods : The central region of the corneal endothelium of elderly patients was assessed by specular microscopy using the Tomey EM-3000 to calculate all cell parameters, including corneal pachymetry, between the years 2013 and 2017. A total of 42 patients (22 male, 20 females) and 75 eyes (37 OD, 36 OS) were studied. All patients were 65 years or older (mean age of 73.9). Patients were classified in age groups with a 5-year range (65-69,70-74, etc.). All eyes included in this study were healthy, with exclusion criteria including previous ocular surgery, glaucoma and photocoagulation. Polymegatism was considered when the coefficient of variation (CV) of cell area was higher than 40%. Pleomorphism was considered when less than 50% of the cells were six-sided.

Results : The mean cell density (MCD) among all patients was 2268 cells/mm2 with no statistically significant difference between male and females (p=0.15). The average CV was 42.04 with 33 patients (44%) having polymegatism. The average percentage of six-sided cells was 42.3% with 57 patients (76%) having pleomorphism. The mean corneal thickness was 0.537 mm. There was no statistical significance between age groups for MCD (p=0.27), CV (p=0.21), hexagonality (p=0.42) and pachymetry (p=0.35). 20 patients (27%) had significant guttae. During our study 3 patients (1 male, 2 female) were diagnosed with Fuchs endothelial dystrophy with all of them showing polymegatism and pleomorphism and a MCD of 1152 cells/mm2.

Conclusions : This study demonstrates that the elderly hispanic population has a high prevalence of cornea guttata as well as polymegatism and pleomorphism with a normal mean corneal cell density and thickness

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.