Eur J Anat, 7 (3): 117-120 (2003)

Human corneal thickness using a noncontact specular microscope

Sanchis-Gimeno J.A., Alonso L., Rahhal S.M., Martinez Soriano F.

Dept. of Anat. and Human Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; Rahhal Ophthalmology Clinic, Valencia, Spain; Dpto. Anatomia y Embriologia Humana, Facultad de Medicina de Valencia, Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 15, E-46010 Valencia, Spain

ABSTRACT The aim of this work was to study the central corneal thickness values and interobserver variability using a noncontact specular microscope. Methods: 62 eyes from 31 healthy subjects were studied with the Topcon SP-2000P noncontact specular microscope (Topcon Corp., Tokyo, Japan). 16 (51.61%) were females, and 15 (48.38%) were males. The mean age of the sample was 31.83±5.68 years. The mean of three consecutive measurements of the central corneal thickness was recorded by two investigators. Results: Mean central corneal thickness was 497±53 ?m for physician I and 497±51 ?m for physician II (p=0.982). No significant differences were found between the left and right corneas (p=0.999), between females and males (p=0.756), between ? 29-years-olds and ? 30-years-olds (p=0.945) or between myopic and hyperopic eyes (p=0.994). Conclusion: Noncontact specular microscopy is a recently introduced anatomical tool that can be used to study the human cornea in vivo.

Keywords: adult, age, article, cornea thickness, female, human, hypermetropia, in vivo study, male, microscope, myopia, normal human, observer variation, physician, recording, specular microscopy