Corneal Endothelial Characteristics in Normal Chinese Han Children and Youngsters: A Study from the Specular Microscopy Descriptions.

Objective: To observe the morphological changes of corneal endothelial cells in healthy Chinese children and youngsters and analyze the sensitive and specificity of the endothelial assessments.

Methods: 14,670 Chinese healthy volunteers enrolled were examined by specular microscopy, and the endothelial descriptive indexes: the central corneal thickness (CCT), endothelial cell density (ECD), coefficient of variation in average cell size (CV), the percentage of regular hexagonal cells (hexagonality, HEX), cell size of minimal cell ( ), cell size of maximal cell ( ), average cell size ( ), and size of standard deviation of cell area ( ) as well as sex and age were analyzed.

Results: The average age of this study is 17.36 ± 7.58 (4-30) years. There is no sex predominance: 7,260 male (49.5%) and 7,410 female (50.5%). The mean CCT, ECD, CV, HEX, , , and are 529.94 ± 31.53 (437-644) m, 3,051.28 ± 375.49 (2,031-4,074) cells/mm, 28.34 ± 4.36 (18-40) %, 61.21 ± 10.29 (17-89) %, (147.79 ± 21.94 to 678.29 ± 120.96) m, 332.74 ± 44.62 m, and 95.02 ± 23.17 m, respectively. The CCTs keep consistency. The ECD decreased rate is 1.02%/year. The curve of ECD and hexagonality expresses the same linear tender. The CCT and endothelial evaluation indexes have no sex predominant ( > 0.05); the quantitative indicators: CCT, ECD, and HEX are significant negative associated with age ( = 0.001 or < 0.001); the variability indexes: the CV, , , , and are positive correlation ( < 0.001). The coefficients of CCT, HE, and are -0.35, -0.59, and 1.17, respectively.

Conclusions: The ECD decrease rate is 1.02%/year of the normal Chinese Han childhood to the earlier adulthood. The ages 4 to 12, 13 to 20, and 21 to 30 can be named as the childhood, puberty and adulthood from endothelial biologic identity. The HEX is the sensitivity marks for the polymorphisms while the S is the specificity indicator CVs upon the Topcon Noncon Specular microscopy results.