Importancia del recuento de la densidad celular endotelial en el tejido corneal con fines de trasplante en el Banco de Ojos del Hospital General de Cholula

Abstract

Introduction: Demonstrate the importance of count the endothelial cell density by specular microscopy, as an important factor independent of the age ranges of the donor of corneal tissue. Material and methods: This is a cross-sectional, observational, descriptive, retrospective and prospective study. 98 corneas were analyzed, of which seven were removed by illegible reading, with a final sample of 91 corneas. These were donated for transplant purposes in the state of Puebla and analyzed by the Ocular Tissue Bank of the General Hospital of Cholula from June 2019 to January 2020. For study purposes, the corneas were divided by age groups by decade. Results: Of the 91 corneas analyzed, a greater number of donations was observed in decade 7, with 22 corneas. Regarding cell density, an average of 1,976 ± 613.45 cells/mm 2 was found, the minimum being 554 cells/mm 2 in a 38-year-old cornea and the maximum being 3,484 cells/mm 2 in a 17-year-old cornea, the coefficient of variation presented an average of 58.48 ± 20,519, a minimum of 38 in a 62-year-old cornea and a maximum of 216 in a 49-year-old cornea and and < 0.039 of hexagonality. Conclusions: The utility and importance of evaluating corneal tissue was demonstrated, regardless of donor age with specular microscopy. It was shown that cell density does show a linear decrease per decade of age, however it has a significant variable, a representative figure is the cornea with the least cellularity in the entire study, which is 38 years old with 554 cells/mm 2 , thus showing that age is not a reliable parameter to evaluate the quality of a cornea. The youngest cornea in the study was 15 years old, with a cell density of 2,222 cells/mm 2 , and two older corneas were 78 years old with a density of 1,241 cells/mm 2 and 1,410 cells/mm 2 . The hexagonality showed a decrease per decade, data that is related to that described in the literature, however the coefficient of variation did not show a statistical relationship with age. It should be mentioned that 78% of the studied population presented pleomorphism and 87.9% presented polymegatism.