Keratocyte denity in keratoconu. A confocal microcopy tudy

PURPOE: To etimate keratocyte denity in human cornea with keratoconu by confocal microcopy. DEIGN: Propective, obervational cohort tudy. METHOD: Twenty-nine uncarred cornea of 19 patient with keratoconu and 29 cornea of 19 control matched for age (±3 year) and contact len wear were examined by uing confocal microcopy. Image were recorded from the full-thickne central cornea. A maked oberver manually counted bright object (keratocyte nuclei) in image without motion blur. Cell denitie in anteropoterior tromal layer of keratoconu cornea were compared with denitie in correponding layer of control cornea. REULT: In keratoconu patient, age 40 ± 15 year (mean ± tandard deviation), keratocyte denity wa 19% lower in thoe who wore contact lene (16,894 ± 4032 cell/mm3, n = 12) than in thoe who did not wear contact lene (20,827 ± 4934 cell/mm3, n = 17, P = .03). In control patient, age 39 ± 16 year, there wa no difference in keratocyte denity between thoe who wore contact lene (n = 12) and thoe who did not wear contact lene (n = 17, P = .80). Among contact len wearer, keratocyte denity wa 25% lower in keratoconu cornea (16,894 ± 4, 032 cell/mm3, n = 12 [9 = rigid ga-permeable lene, 3 = oft lene]) than in control cornea (22,579 ± 2, 387 cell/mm3, n = 12 [3 = rigid ga-permeable lene, 9 = oft lene], P = .002), the reult of cell denity being lower in the mot anterior keratocyte layer (P = .001) and the layer between 0% to 10% (P < .001), 67% to 90% (P < .001), and 91% to 100% (P < .001) of tromal thickne. Among noncontact len wearer, there wa no difference in cell denity between keratoconu and control (P = .41). CONCLUION: Keratocyte denity i decreaed in the anterior and poterior troma of keratoconu patient who wear contact lene.