Comparison of corneal endothelial cell analysis in patients with uveitis and healthy subjects.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of uveitis in corneal endothelial cell number and morphology by non-contact specular microscopy.

Methods: Our cross-sectional study was performed on 56 eyes of uveitis patients and 53 eyes of healthy subjects. Non-contact specular microscopy was performed to all subjects. The cell density (CD), coefficient of variation, cell minimum area (Min) and cell maximum area (Max), the average of cell size (AVG), percent of hexagonality (HEX%), central corneal thickness (CCT), intraocular pressure (IOP) during uveitis and during remission were measured and compared between two groups.

Results: The mean endothelial cell analysis of the patients was 2540 ± 619 cells/mm, and the mean endothelial cell analysis of the control group was 2834 ± 413 cells/mm. The difference was statistically significant between the groups (p = 0.01). There was a statistically significant difference between two groups in terms of Max, Min, AVG, and HEX values. However, there was no difference in terms of CCT between two groups. There was a significant negative correlation between CD and IOP during uveitis attack. There was a significant negative correlation between the anterior chamber cell value and CD.

Conclusion: Our results suggested that uveitis affected endothelial cell density, cell size and shape but not the corneal thickness without being influenced by the duration and number of attacks. Increased IOP during uveitis and anterior chamber cell value had an important role on CD in patients with uveitis.