Corneal Endothelial Characteristics, Central Corneal Thickness, and Intraocular Pressure in a Population of Chinese Age-Related Cataract Patients.

Yingmei Li,Xinyi Wu,Miao Li,Yuguang Zhang,Zhentao Fu,Jian Liu

doi:10.1155/2017/9154626

Abstract

Purpose To describe corneal endothelial characteristics, central corneal thickness, and intraocular pressure in a population of Chinese age-related cataract patients and to determine the effects of age, gender, hypertension, and body mass index (BMI). Methods 1551 eyes were examined preoperatively. The parameters measured were endothelial cell density (CD), average cell area (CA), coefficient of variation (CV), cell hexagonality (HEX), central corneal thickness (CCT), intraocular pressure (IOP), and axial length (AL). Results There were significant differences in CV and BMI between genders. There was a significant decrease in CD, CCT, and IOP and, conversely, an increase in CA and BMI with increasing age. The patients who suffered from hypertension had bigger CA, less CD, and lower HEX than the patients who did not suffer from hypertension. CD has a negative correlation with age and CV and a positive correlation with CCT, CCT has a positive association with CD and IOP, and IOP had a negative relationship with age and a positive relationship with CCT, CA, and HEX. Conclusions Normative data for the corneal endothelium, central corneal thickness, and intraocular pressure in the normal age-related cataract patients are reported which will serve as a baseline for comparative studies about cataract.

Highlights

Age-related cataract remains the most common cause of blindness throughout the world [1, 2]
Many studies have been published to describe the relationship of endothelial cell density and morphology to age [9,10,11,12,13,14,15], gender [12,13,14,15], and ethnicity [12,13,14,15,16] in different populations
Because corneal endothelial cell status could be affected by systemic and ocular conditions [18,19,20, 23,24,25], our subjects were in good general health and had a negative history of intraocular surgery, corneal surgery, ocular trauma, increased intraocular pressure, pseudoexfoliation syndrome, glaucoma, uveitis, keratopathy, high myopia, diabetes mellitus, contact lens wear, and other diseases that might cause cataract

Summary

Introduction

Age-related cataract remains the most common cause of blindness throughout the world [1, 2]. Cataract extraction is the only treatment option available which is the most frequently performed in the world. It is well established that cataract extraction decreases the number of corneal endothelial cells, which can lead to corneal edema, even bullous keratopathy when endothelial cell density significantly decreases. Because the human corneal endothelium is a single layer of predominantly six-sided cells with a limited regenerative capacity in vivo [6,7,8] which can stop aqueous humor into the extracellular space and it is crucial for maintaining corneal clarity, it is significant to know the corneal endothelial cell status of cataract patients before surgery. We described the preoperative central corneal endothelium cells as a baseline study for a clinical trial on age-related cataract surgery

Methods

Results

Conclusion