Comparision of Specular Microscopy and Confocal Microscopy for Evaluation of Corneal Endothelium

Ja Young Lee; Seung Hee Lee; Sung Kun Chung; Hae Young Lee

doi:10.3341/jkos.2008.49.10.1572

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Lee, Lee, Chung, and Lee: Comparision of Specular Microscopy and Confocal Microscopy for Evaluation of Corneal Endothelium

Original Article

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2008;49(10):1572-1577.

Published online: 7 September 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2008.49.10.1572

Comparision of Specular Microscopy and Confocal Microscopy for Evaluation of Corneal Endothelium

Ja Young Lee, M.D.¹, Seung Hee Lee, M.D.¹, Sung Kun Chung, M.D., Ph.D.^2,, Hae Young Lee, M.D.

Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul Adventist Hospital, Seoul, Korea

Department of Ophthalmology, St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

Address reprint requests to Sung Kun Chung, M.D., Ph.D. Department of Ophthalmology, St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea #62 Yeouido-dong, Youngdungpo-gu, Seoul 150-010, Korea Tel: 82-2-3779-1150, Fax: 82-2-761-6869, E-mail: eyedoc@catholic.ac.kr

Received 10 July 2008 Accepted 20 February 2008

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

To compare the results of specular microscopy with those of confocal microscopy for evaluation of corneal endothelium.

Methods

We evaluated corneal endothelium of 103 eyes using specular microscopy and confocal microscopy. Endothelial cell density, pleomorphism, and polymegathism were measured using a ConfoScan 4 confocal microscope (Nidek Technologies, Inc, Greensborom, NC) in automatic mode before and after manual correction. Also, endothelial cell density, the coefficient of variation, and hexagonality were evaluated using a Konan Noncon Robo-8400 noncontact specular microscope (Konan medical, Inc., Hyogo, Japan). The differences in results obtained from these various methods were compared: polymegathism was compared with the coefficient of variation, and pleomorphism was compared with the inversion of hexagonality.

Results

Endothelial cell density as measured by specular microscopy, the automatic count of confocal microscopy, and the manual correction for confocal microscopy were 2797.6±354.14 cell/mm², 2973.1±284.24 cell/mm², and 2861.9±335.58 cell/mm², respectively. Results of each test was not significantly different ( p=0.241). The inversion of hexagonality, pleomorphism of automatically counted confocal microscopy, and the pleomorphism of manually corrected confocal microscopy were 56.14%, 54.77%, and 55.24%, respectively. Results of each test were not significantly different ( p=0.147).The coefficient of variation of specular microscopy, the polymegathism of automatic counted confocal microscopy, and the polymegathism of manually corrected confocal microscopy were 33.71%, 39.68%, and 38.75%, respectively. Results of each test were significantly different ( p=0.005).

Conclusions

Endothelial cell density and polymegathism as measured by confocal microscopy were not different from specular microscopy results in normal corneas, but these results were different for polymegathism in normal corneas. Therefore, manual correction for endothelial cell evaluation of a disordered cornea should be performed during clinical evaluation.

Keywords: Key Words, Confocal microscopy, Corneal endothelium, Specular microscopy

References

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Table 1.

Mean endothelial cell density obtained by a specular microscope and a confocal microscope (Mean±SD)

Subject	Specular*	Confocal-A^†	Confocal-M^‡	p-value
Endothlial cell density (cell/mm²)	2797.6±354.14	2973.1±284.24	2861.9±335.58	0.241^§

^* Specular=specular microscope

^† Confocal-A=confocal microscope with automatic count by NAVIS

^‡ Confocal-M=confocal microscope with manual correction by NAVIS

^§ Tested by ANOVA.

Table 2.

Inversion of hexagonality by the specular microscope and pleomorphism by the confocal microscope (Mean±SD)

Subject	Specular*	Confocal-A^†	Confocal-M^‡	p-value^§
Pleomorphism (%)^П	56.14±11.61	54.77±13.93	55.24±12.65	0.147

^* Specular=specular microscope

^† Confocal-A=confocal microscope with automatic count by NAVIS

^‡ Confocal-M=confocal microscope with manual correction by NAVIS

^§ Tested by ANOVA

^П Pleomorphism=measured by the ConfoScan 4 Confocal microscopy and compared with inversion of heagonality of Konan Robo Specular microscopy.

Table 3.

Mean coefficient of variation by specular microscope and the polymegathism by confocal microscope (Mean±SD)

Subject	Specular*	Confocal-A^†	Confocal-M^‡	p-value^§
Polymegathism (%)^Π	33.71±6.57	39.68±9.76	38.75±7.68	0.005

^* Specular=specular microscope

^† Confocal-A=confocal microscope with automatic count by NAVIS

^‡ Confocal-M=confocal microscope with manual correction by NAVIS

^§ Tested by ANOVA

^Π Polymegathism=measured by the ConfoScan 4 Confocal microscopy and compared with coefficient of variation of Konan Robo Specular microscopy.

Table 4.

p-value of post-hoc test for multiple comparision of coefficient of variation by specular microscope and the polymegathism by confocal microscope (tested by Scheffe’s method)

	Specular*	Confocal-A^†	Confocal-M^‡
Specular*	-	0.003	0.34
Confocal-A^†	0.003	-	0.01
Confocal-M^‡	0.34	0.01	-

^* Specular=specular microscopy

^† Confocal-A=confocal microscope with automatic count by NAVIS;

^‡ Confocal-M=confocal microscope with manual correction by NAVIS

^Π Polymegathism=measured by the ConfoScan 4 Confocal microscopy and compared with coefficient of variation of Konan Robo Specular microscopy.

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