Eur J Anat, 17 (3): 155-158 (2013)

Corneal endothelial cell density and morphology are not correlated with corneal curvature, corneal thickness and gender

Samaneh Delshad

National Institutes of Ophthalmic Sciences, School of Optometry, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to compare the corneal endothelial cell density and morphology betweendifferent genders and to investigate thecorrelation between corneal curvature and cornealthickness with corneal endothelial characteristicsin young Chinese adults. The studied parametersincluded mean endothelial cell density(MCD), coefficient of variation (CV) in the cellsize, as well as hexagonal appearance of the cell.Non-contact Specular microscopy (Konan NSP9900)was performed in 154 subjects (77 maleand 77 female), aged 18 to 24. Corneal thickness(CT) and mean of corneal endothelial cell parameterswere obtained. Corneal curvature wasmeasured using keratometer (Bausch & Lomb,USA). In males, mean CV was 31.20 ± 3.13%,MCD was 3217 ± 108.04 cells/mm2and meanhexagonal appearance of cells was 51.27 ±2.60%. In females, mean CV was 30.18 ± 2.98%,MCD was 3063 ± 131 cells/mm2and mean hexagonalappearance of cells was 53.06 ± 2.97%.Comparing corneal endothelial parameters usingStudentâ??s t test, there was no significant difference in MCD (p=0.560), CV (p=0.428) and hexagonalappearance of the cell (p=0.169), betweengenders. Study of the correlation, usingPearsonâ??s correlation, showed no significant correlations between corneal endothelial characteris-tics and corneal curvature and corneal thickness.To conclude, there is no difference in cornealendothelial cell parameters between genders.Moreover, endothelial cell parameters are correlatedneither with corneal curvature nor cornealthickness.

Keywords: Cornea, Specular microscopy, Endothelial cell density, Morphology