RESEARCH ARTICLE


Age-related Changes of the Corneal Endothelium in the Hispanic Elderly Population



Jorge E. Valdez-García1, *
iD
, Gustavo Ortiz-Morales1, #
iD
, Nallely Morales-Mancillas1
iD
, Jorge Luis Domene-Hickman2, Julio Hernández-Camarena1
iD
, Denise Loya-García1
iD
, Judith Zavala2
iD
, Alejandro Rodriguez-García.1
iD

1 School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Institute of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
2 School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico


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Creative Commons License
© 2022 Valdez-García et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Institute of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Monterrey, Mexico, Av. Batallón de San Patricio No. 112. Col. Real de San Agustin. San Pedro Garza Garcia, N.L. C.P. 62770. México; Tel: +52 81 8888-0552; Fax: +52 81 8356-1799; E-mail: jorge.valdez@tec.mx
# These authors contributed equally


Abstract

Purpose:

To assess the corneal endothelial morphometry in healthy elderly Hispanic eyes.

Methods:

A retrospective, cross-sectional, observational, descriptive, and analytical study was designed to assess the central region of the corneal endothelium by specular microscopy. A total of 241 eyes from 125 patients were studied. All eyes included were from healthy patients 65 or older (mean: 74.56± 6.74), without ocular disease or surgeries.

Results:

The mean cell density (MCD) was 2198.92±493.43 cells/mm2. 125 (51.87%) eyes had polymegethism, with a mean coefficient of variation (CV) of 42.89 ± 9.16%. 148 (61.41%) eyes presented pleomorphism, with an average of 46.25 ± 7.13% hexagonal cells. The mean corneal thickness was 527.55±28.37 μm. A statistically significant difference between age groups was found for MCD and pachymetry (P<0.05). 41 eyes (17.01%) had cornea guttata.

Conclusion:

This study suggests that the elderly Hispanic population has a high prevalence of polymegethism, pleomorphism, and guttata. Surprisingly, the oldest age group (>85) had an above-average MCD, with lower rates of polymegethism and pleomorphism.

Trial Registration Number: #ARCC/ECH2019

Date of Registration: October 18, 2019

Keywords: Cornea, Specular microscopy, Cell density, Pleomorphism, Polymegethism, Cornea guttata.