In vivo confocal microscopy of Thygeson's superficial punctate keratitis

A 56-year-old Chinese man diagnosed with Thygeson's keratitis by clinical biomicroscopy was examined using a tandem scanning confocal microscope. Among normal superficial epithelial cells, clumps of markedly enlarged epithelial cells were identified. Multiple highly reflective filamentary structures were observed in the deeper layers. Most of these lesions were linear; some demonstrated curled ends and others demonstrated branching lesions with 'sprouts'. No inflammatory cells were evident in the areas of corneal stroma sampled. In vivo confocal microscopy may be helpful in the diagnosis of Thygeson's superficial keratitis. To the best of our knowledge, we report the first in vivo confocal images of focal desquamation of epithelium and intraepithelial hyper-reflective linear lesions in English literature.