Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the associations between endothelial cell density(ECD),endothelial morphology and corneal thickness(CCT) with the anterior chamber depth(ACD),corneal volume(CV), white-to-white distance(WTW),mean anterior chamber angle(CAmean) and gender in healthy adults
Methods :
Our observational study included 136 Caucasians.The ECD,coefficient of variation of cell area(CfV) and hexagonal cell appearance ratio(Hex) were measured with specular microscopy (CEM-530;NIDEK Co,Ltd.Japan). The CCT, ACD, CV, WTW and the angle width of 12 points were taken by the Pentacam HR(Oculus GmbH,Wetzlar,Germany). CAmean was the arithmetical mean of the 12 points.The corneal volume was calculated in a 10mm diameter around the corneal apex.The association between corneal endothelial cell characteristics,gender and the Pentacam scores was investigated with mixed effects linear regression model to account for the correlation between the eyes from the same subject,with and without age. Analysis was conducted with Stata statistical software package version 13 (STATA Corp,College Station,TX)
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Results :
272 eyes were evaluated. Mean age was 46.8±17.1years.61% were men and 39% were women. Mean ECD(2673.61±341.9cells/mm2) was positively correlated with CV(59.43±4.11mm3)(p=0.02), whilst after adjusting for age, it was only negatively correlated with age (p<0.001). CfV(28.6±4.78%) was positively correlated with CAmean (35.1±5.59degrees)(p=0.03), whilst after adjusting for age, it was positively correlated with age(p<0.001) and CAmean(p=0.005).Hex(67.51±5.24%) was negatively correlated with WTW (11.75±0.37mm)(p=0.02) and CAmean (p=0.02), and after adjusting for age, this correlation remained the same
Conclusions :
Significant associations were shown between CV, CAmean,WTW and age with the morphology of the corneal endothelium.Lower ECD values would be expected in older population and in patients with lower CV.Greater polymegathism was found in older individuals, and greater pleomorphism in adults with greater WTW.Greater polymegathism and pleomorphism was observed in eyes with wider CAmean, implying that the corneal endothelial quality tends to be poorer in eyes with wider anterior chamber angle.These eyes are more likely to be myopic and myopic corneas may be more fragile and more susceptible to mechanical stress.The exact mechanism by which myopia could cause corneal endothelial morphology change needs to be further studied
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.