Assessment of the corneal endothelium in acute ultraviolet keratitis

The purpose of this prospective case-control study was to investigate whether exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light produces detectable damage to the corneal endothelium in patients presenting with acute UV keratitis.

Non-contact specular microscopy was performed on 20 consecutive patients who presented to our clinic from July 2000 to July 2002 with acute UV keratitis and similarly on 20 age-matched healthy controls. Both the coefficient of variation in mean cell size (CV) and the mean cell density (CD) were compared in these two groups using the Student t-test.

Mean age was 28.6 years in the study group and 28.4 years in the control group. The mean CD in the patient group was 2609.6 (SD = 103.47) and in the control group 2632.87 (SD = 117.05). No statistically significant difference was found between the mean CDs in these two groups (p = 0.93). The mean CV in the patient group was 46.7 (SD = 4.40) and in the control group 45.4 (SD = 5.60). Similarly, there was no statistically significant difference between the mean CVs in these two groups (p = 0.85).

UV light exposure does not seem to have a direct immediate effect on the corneal endothelium in humans with acute UV keratitis. Whether UV light produces cumulative and/or longer-term damage requires further studies with a larger number of patients and a longer follow-up time.