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Confocal microscopy reveals significant corneal changes in dry eye patients
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Dye eye patients showed significant alterations in the cornea, the most pronounced of which were found in the lower corneal periphery in patients with exposure keratopathy, according to an analysis with confocal microscopy.
Béla Erdélyi, of Semmelweis University in Hungary, and colleagues used confocal microscopy to assess the morphological and quantitative properties of 10 patients with aqueous tear deficiency, eight patients with dysthyroid ophthalmopathy, eight patients with chronic lagophthalmos and 10 normal controls.
The researchers found the patient groups' mean superficial and intermediate epithelial cell densities, as well as general corneal thickness, to be significantly lower than in the control group (P < .01). The peripheral epithelial thickness was smaller in the patient groups (P < .01), with the lagophthalmos group being the smallest.
The density of the sub-basal nerves had decreased in the patient groups (P < .05), the authors said. In patients with lagophthalmos, they found an increase in the number of beadlike formations (P < .001).
The study is published in the January issue of Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.