Pachymetry of donor corneas: effect of ethnicity and gender on central corneal thickness.

Purpose: To examine demographic differences associated with the central corneal thickness (CCT) of donor corneas and to investigate whether these differences confirmed previous clinical studies.

Methods: CCT was prospectively measured using noncontact pachymetry among 704 eye bank corneas. The effects of gender, ethnicity, age, cause of death, times until preservation and evaluation, and endothelial cell density and morphometry on CCT were examined.

The postmortem sociomedical interview: uncertainty in confirming infectious disease risks of young tattooed donors.

Purpose: To assess the reproducibility of relatives' replies to questions asked at the time of corneal donation and again 2 months later concerning infectious disease risk factors and to identify characteristics associated with inconsistent responses.

Methods: A reinterview study involving individuals who answered questions regarding an eye donor's sociomedical history within 1 day of the decedent's death and who consented to be recontacted 6 to 12 weeks later. The main outcome measures were frequency of answering differently on the same questions of infectious disease risk factors and the donors' and relatives' characteristics that predicted inconsistency.