Variations in endothelial morphology of normal corneas and after cataract extraction. A specular microscopic study.

The central corneal endothelium of 22 normal subjects and 11 unilateral aphakic subjects was photographed with the non-contact specular microscope. The aphakic patients had undergone intracapsular cataract extraction one to four years previously. Endothelial cell densities were estimated. All cells which had been counted were then grouped according to their number of neighbours. The percentages of cells having 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 neighbours were means +/- SD): 0.4 +/- 0.8; 18.0 +/- 3.4; 64.1 +/- 6.5; 15.9 +/- 2.6 and 0.9 +/- 0.8 per cent, respectively in the normal eyes, and 0.8 +/- 1.3; 20.9 +/- 3.7; 57.4 +/- 5.6; 19.6 +/- 3.9 and 1.4 +/- 1.2 per cent in the aphakic group, respectively. The frequency of cells having 5, 6, or 7 neighbours were significantly different in the two groups. Cells with 9 or 10 neighbours were not seen in the normal group but occurred in 2 and 1 of the aphakic eyes, respectively. In the normal group the frequency of hexagonal cells was found to correlate to the cell density (r = 0.46, 2P less than 0.01) and age (r = -0.40,2P less than 0.05).