title: Quantitative endothelial biomicroscopy.
abstract: Twenty patients were evaluated by quantitative endothelial biomicroscopy and the resulting endothelial cell densities compared with those from a specular microscope. Estimated cell densities by this technique, when compared with the specular microscope, demonstrated a Pearson correlation coefficient of +0.977, an average error of -7% and an absolute error of 12%. There were no errors greater than 26% except for one extremely low cell density of 318 cells/mm2 for which the estimate was 476 cells/mm2. This rapid, inexpensive technique requires counting the number of endothelial cells seen across the horizontal diameter of the 0.2-mm projected spot beam of a standard biomicroscope. From this count and the known spot size the endothelial cell density may be accurately calculated. A simplified four-step technique for performing specular microscopy using only the standard biomicroscope and a method for accurately measuring the size of the projected slit lamp spot beam are explained.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002452:Cell Count / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D003315:Cornea / Q000166:cytology*; D004727:Endothelium / Q000166:cytology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged