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Updated: Aug 9, 2026
Using En Face Immunofluorescence Staining to Observe Vascular Endothelial Cells Directly
Published on: August 20, 2019
In vivo confocal microscopy of pre-endothelial deposits
Stephan Linke1, Udo Bartsch, Gisbert Richard
1Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. slinke@uke.uni-hamburg.de
Background:
Deposits in various layers of the cornea might result from long-term medical therapy, photorefractive surgery, and longterm use of contact lenses or corneal dystrophies.
Methods:
A 46-year-old woman was referred to our department with the suspected diagnosis of posterior polymorphous dystrophy. Slit-lamp biomicroscopy revealed bilateral small-sized deposits in the posterior part of the cornea. In vivo confocal microscopy was performed to evaluate these deposits in detail.
Results:
In vivo confocal microscopy of the cornea identified hyperreflec-tive "dot-like" structures in the deep stromal layer and anterior to the endothelial cell layer. The morphology and number of keratocytes of the posterior stroma and of endothelial cells appeared normal.
Conclusions:
In vivo confocal microscopy is a very useful tool to analyze and visualize pre-endothelial deposits. Because there is no family history of corneal disease, the exact origin of the pre-endothelial deposits in our case remains unclear.
