Quantitative assessment of central and limbal epithelium after long-term wear of soft contact lenses and in patients with dry eyes: a pilot study.
PurposeAnalysis of microstructural alterations of corneal and limbal epithelial cells in healthy human corneas and in other ocular conditions.Patients and methodsUnilateral eyes of three groups of subjects include healthy volunteers (G1, n=5), contact lens wearers (G2, n=5), and patients with dry eyes (G3, n=5) were studied. Imaging of basal (BC) and intermediate (IC) epithelial cells from central cornea (CC), corneal limbus (CL) and scleral limbus (SL) was obtained by in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM). An appropriate image analysis algorithm was used to quantify morphometric parameters including mean cell area, compactness, solidity, major and minor diameter, and maximum boundary distance.ResultsThe morphometric parameters of BC and IC demonstrated no significant differences (P>0.05) between groups. Comparison between three corneal locations (CC, CL, and SL) within the groups showed significant differences (P<0.05) with mean values of cell area, compactness, solidity, and major and minor diameter of BC that increase from CC to limbus. The BC were round and regular in the central cornea (P<0.05) compared with CL and SL.ConclusionsIVCM enables high-quality confocal images from central corneal and limbal epithelium. This quantitative study demonstrated morphological differences in the basal and intermediate epithelium between limbus and central cornea, and found no differences between contact lens wearers, dry eyes, and normal subjects.
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
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Prakasam
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
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Kowtharapu
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
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Falke
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Anatomy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.|Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology (IMISE), University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
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Winter
Institute for Biostatistics, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
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Diedrich
Institute for Biostatistics, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
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Glass
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
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Jünemann
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
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Guthoff
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
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Stachs
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D048430:Cell Shape; D048429:Cell Size; D003263:Contact Lenses, Hydrophilic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes / Q000150:complications*; D019573:Epithelium, Corneal / Q000166:cytology*; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D016850:Limbus Corneae / Q000166:cytology; D008297:Male; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012030:Refractive Errors / Q000628:therapy*