A Comparative Study of Corneal Endothelial Cell Count and Central Corneal Thickness in Emmetropia and Axial Myopia

BACKGROUND The main attributes of cornea which makes it optically important is its ability to maintain its dehydrated state. This corneal dehydration can be achieved and maintained by various factors among which corneal endothelial cell count and morphology play a significant role. Corneal attributes considered in this study i.e. the corneal endothelial cell count and central corneal thickness are extremely variable, and changes are seen even with smaller changes in anterior segment or overall structural changes in eyes. We wanted to compare central corneal thickness in emmetropia and axial myopia and compare corneal endothelial cell count in emmetropia and axial myopia. METHODS The sample size was decided taking into consideration various prevalence studies. The patients were consecutively recruited for the study considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The subjects were divided into two groups emmetropia and axial myopia and were differentiated on the basis of the axial lengths. Specular microscopy was performed for the subjects and corneal endothelial cell count, morphology and central corneal thickness were measured, and comparative study was performed. RESULTS This study of 80 eyes shows us that the difference between mean the corneal endothelial cell count between emmetrope (2812.80 cells / mm(2)) and axial myopes (2653 cells / mm(2)) is statistically significant where p was < 0.05 while the mean central corneal thickness measurements didn't show statistically significant change between emmetrope (490.05 microns) and axial myope. (489.37 microns). CONCLUSIONS Axial length has an indirect correlation with the corneal endothelial cell count which is statistically significant. While significant correlation between the central corneal thickness and axial length cannot be established in this study.