Terrien's disease: clinical and ultrastructural studies, five case reports.

Terrien's disease occurs in middle-aged patients and is characterised by an insidious thinning of the cornea near the limbus. In most cases, this results in a peripheral ectasia associated with a severe degree of astigmatism. Inflammatory signs are rarely observed in this marginal corneal degeneration which is of unknown aetiology. Electron and light microscopic studies have been performed on five specimens from penetrating keratoplasties. Anatomical and clinical correlations showed the marked marginal degenerations of the corneal stroma to be consistently associated with lipid deposits, but without inflammatory cell infiltrate. These changes are in agreement with previous reported pathological descriptions of Terrien's disease.