Evaluation of the corneal endothelium by specular microscopy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the corneal endothelium in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using a specular microscope.

Methods: The right eyes of 64 patients with a COPD diagnosis and 65 healthy individuals were evaluated. Cell density (CD) (cell/mm ), corneal thickness (CT) (μ), hexagonal cell ratio (%), and coefficient of variation (cell area standard deviation/mean cell area, μm ) were analyzed by specular microscopy (SM).

Results: The CT was significantly reduced in the COPD group compared with the control group (P = 0.021). Moreover, a significant difference was found between the COPD group and the control group in terms of corneal endothelial CD (P = 0.011), hexagonal cell ratio (P = 0.008), and coefficient of variation (P = 0.012).

Conclusion: The corneal endothelial structure was significantly deteriorated in patients with COPD compared with the control group. SM is a valuable method that could be used in treatment and follow-up of corneal endothelium in patients with COPD.