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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
Corneal Confocal Microscopy: A Novel Non-invasive Technique to Quantify Small Fibre Pathology in Peripheral Neuropathies
Published on: January 3, 2011
Assessing corneal dendritic cells in glucose dysregulation small-fibre neuropathy
Juan Francisco Idiaquez1, Carolina Barnett-Tapia1, Bruce A Perkins2
1Ellen and Martin Prosserman Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Background And Aims:
Small-fibre neuropathy (SFN) is associated with glucose dysregulation, including impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) offers a non-invasive tool to assess corneal nerve damage and dendritic cell density (DCD). In this study, we investigated corneal DCD in patients with SFN and glucose dysregulation, defined as IGT or T2D.
Methods:
We enrolled 38 patients with SFN + glucose dysregulation, 51 with SFN + non-glucose dysregulation and 20 healthy controls. All participants underwent neurological examination, neurophysiology and CCM.
Results:
Individuals with SFN and glucose dysregulation had higher DCD compared with healthy controls (p = .01), and mature DCD was higher in IGT SFN patients than in T2D patients.
Interpretation:
Higher DCD in IGT compared with controls and patients with established T2D may suggest that DCD is a biomarker of early neuropathy.
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