Corneal endothelial cell morphology in patients undergoing cataract surgery.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of age, gender, axial length, and presence of type II diabetes on corneal endothelial cell morphology in patients undergoing cataract surgery.


METHODS
The corneal endothelial cell morphology was investigated in 1,819 eyes of 1,394 patients before cataract surgery. The parameters examined include cell density, coefficient of variation of cell area, and percentage of hexagonal cells. The effects of age, gender, axial length, and presence of type II diabetes on these parameters were evaluated.


RESULTS
The mean values in endothelial cell density, coefficient of variation of cell area, and percentage of hexagonal cells in all eyes, were 2,543 +/- 254 cells/mm2 (range, 1906-3,252), 0.64 +/- 0.10 (range, 0.34-1.00), and 37.9 +/- 7.1% (range, 17.6-61.7), respectively. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that age was the only explanatory variable to be relevant to corneal endothelial cell density (R = -0.201, p < 0.0001), coefficient of variation of cell area (R = 0.066, p = 0.0046), and percentage of hexagonal cells (R = -0.086, p = 0.0002). The other variables, including gender, axial length, and presence of type II diabetes mellitus, were found to be irrelevant to any of the parameters of corneal endothelial cells.


CONCLUSIONS
Age is the major relevant factor in corneal endothelial cell morphology in patients before cataract surgery.
Inoue
Kenji
K
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tokyo, School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. inoue-k@fd5.so-net.ne.jp
Tokuda
Yoshihiro
Y
Inoue
Yuji
Y
Amano
Shiro
S
Oshika
Tetsuro
T
Inoue
Jiro
J
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002386:Cataract / Q000150:complications; D002387:Cataract Extraction; D002452:Cell Count; D048429:Cell Size; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications; D004728:Endothelium, Corneal / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors