Assessment of Corneal Endothelial Cell Status in Aging Eye

ABS TRACT Objective: To describe the corneal endothelial cell density and morphology in normal adult eyes, and determine the influence of aging on these parameters. Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, specular microscopy was performed in 547 eyes of 547 healthy volunteers aged 20 to 85 years. Of these, 279 were female, and 268 were male. The study parameters included endothelial cell density (ECD), cell area (CA), the coefficient of variation (CoV) and percentage of hexagonal cells (Hex%). The influence of age and gender on these parameters were evaluated. Results: The mean ECD and mean CA in the study population were 2607±323 cells/mm2 and 389.6±51.2 μm2, respectively. In the correlation analysis, there was a decrease in mean ECD (r= 0.305, p<0.001), and an increase in mean CA (r=0.295, p<0.001) with increasing age. The mean CoV in cell size and the mean Hex% were 35.7±6.06% and 56.8±9.1%, respectively. There was a weak correlation between increasing age and CoV in cell size (r=0.075, p=0.021), and the percentage of hexagonal was not correlated with age (p=0.088). There were no statistically significant differences in mean ECD, mean CoV in cell size, or hexagonality between genders (all p values>0.05). Conclusion: Our data for the corneal endothelial structure in Turkish population showed that age but not gender, has a negative impact on endothelial cell density. Age was not a determinant in the pleomorphic changes of the endothelium.