Corneal Morphologic Characteristics using In Vivo Confocal Microscopy in Patients with Different Degrees of Keratoconus
Keywords:
keratoconus, confocal microscopy, corneaAbstract
Objective: To describe the cellular and structural morphologic characteristics of the cornea in vivo in patients with different stages of keratoconus.
Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed on 45 eyes of patients with a diagnosis of keratoconus seen at the Cornea service of the Cuban Institute of Ophthalmology Ramón Pando Ferrer, between May 2018 and May 2019. The variables age group, density of superficial and basal epithelial cells, anterior and posterior stromal keratocytes and endothelial cells, coefficient of variation, hexagonality were studied.
Results: Cell density was superficial epithelial 1045 ±37.7 cell/mm2, 1026.1 ± 91.8 cell/mm2 and 1009 ± 45.9 cell/mm2 and basal epithelial, 4659.6 ± 62.6 cell/mm2, 4562.8 ± 52, 7 cell/mm2 and 4512.0 ± 37.6 cell/mm2 in stages 1, 2 and 3, respectively, keratocytes in anterior and posterior stroma of 903.0 ± 23.0 cell/mm2 and 746.0 ± 25.2 cell/mm2 in stage 1; 873 ± 21.0 cell/mm2 and 722.9 ± 35.2 cell/mm2 in stage 2 and 828.0 ± 12.9 cell/mm2 and 694.4 ± 26.3 cell/mm2 in stage 3, respectively.
Conclusions: The density of basal and superficial epithelial cells, keratocytes in the anterior and posterior stroma, as well as endothelial cells are associated with the severity of keratoconus.
