The association between primary pterygium and corneal endothelial cell density
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 28, 2025
In Vitro and In Vivo Models to Study Corneal Endothelial-mesenchymal Transition
Published on: August 20, 2016
Yijun Hu1,2, Alp Atik3, Wei Qi4
1Aier School of Ophthalmology, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Background:
To investigate corneal endothelial cell density in eyes with primary pterygium.
Methods:
A retrospective study was conducted to compare endothelial cell density between 1,565 patients with primary pterygium and 3,448 patients without pterygium. Then a prospective study was designed to confirm the findings of the retrospective study in 95 patients with unilateral primary pterygium.
Results:
In the retrospective study, the mean endothelial cell density in eyes with primary pterygium was significantly lower (2,454 ± 303 cells/mm2 ) than those in eyes without pterygium (2,525 ± 312 cells/mm2 , p < 0.0001). However, the difference was not as high as previously reported (71 cells/mm2 , 2.9 per cent). In the prospective study, there was no significant difference in mean endothelial cell density in eyes with unilateral primary pterygium (2,480 ± 263 cells/mm2 ) and the contralateral eyes with no pterygium (2,527 ± 277 cells/mm2 , p = 0.20). There was also no significant difference in hexagonality (p = 0.10) or co-efficient of variation of size (p = 0.15) of corneal endothelial cells between eyes with pterygium and the contralateral eyes with no pterygium.
Conclusion:
Primary pterygium may not be associated with a decrease in endothelial cell density in our study population of rural Chinese patients.
