Comparison of automated corneal endothelial cell analysis in healthy and postoperative eyes with phakic intraocular lens: a cross-sectional study and literature review.

PURPOSE: Measurement of corneal endothelial cells is critical for postoperative evaluation of phakic intraocular lens (pIOL) surgery. However, inter-instrument differences in corneal endothelial cell density (ECD) after pIOL implantation have not yet been reported. This study aimed to compare automated corneal endothelial cell analysis between CellChek-20 (Konan Medical, Hyogo, Japan) and EM-4000 (Tomey, Nagoya, Japan) in healthy and postoperative eyes with pIOL.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed 154 healthy and 236 postoperative eyes after pIOL surgery. Endothelial cell measurements were performed using CellChek-20 and EM-4000 with autofocusing and automated image analysis. ECD, percentage of hexagonal cells (HEX), coefficient of variation in cell size (CoV), and central corneal thickness (CCT) were compared between the two devices.

RESULTS

The ECDs of the two devices were highly correlated in both healthy (Spearman's correlation coefficient [r] = 0.805; p < 0.001) and postoperative (r = 0.901; p < 0.001) groups. ECD from CellChek-20 was higher than EM-4000 in both healthy (mean difference = 228.9 cells/mm2; p < 0.001) and postoperative (mean difference = 115.6 cells/mm2; p < 0.001) groups. The CCT values also showed a strong correlation in healthy eyes (r = 0.974; p < 0.001) and in postoperative eyes (r = 0.936; p < 0.001); however, significant inter-instrument differences were observed. HEX and CV showed significant differences and relatively weak correlations (r < 0.7) between the two devices in both healthy and postoperative groups.

CONCLUSION

The ECD values between the two instruments were correlated, but that of the CellChek-20 was significantly higher than that of the EM-4000 in both healthy and postoperative eyes after pIOL surgery. Most previous studies have also shown that the Konan software overestimated the ECD compared to other products in automatic measurement mode. The possibility of measurement bias should be considered when replacing equipment used for corneal endothelial cell measurements.