[Keratinocyte density of the cornea in vivo. Automated measurement with a modified confocal microscopy MICROPHTHAL]

The MICROPHTHAL is a confocal slit light scanning microscope for a non-invasive in-vivo examination of corneal structures of human eyes. With this instrument even thin layers of corneal tissue can be imaged in good quality. Otherwise, blurring of single frames and deviations from the z-axis in video-sequences caused by high speed movements of the eye would normally prevent a measurement the density of keratocytes in the cornea. The goal of the investigation was optical pachymetry, the automatical measurement of the keratocytes density and a 3D-dimensional reconstruction of the central cornea in-vivo under constant imaging conditions.

We developed a low-vacuum suction cup system for stabilizing the eye in front of the microscope objective during the z-scan through the cornea. A stepmotor shifting system for the objective locates inside the suction cup with a central hole was installed underneath them icroscope. Control of this system via computer facilitated shifting the focal plane along the z-axis. The layer images were recorded using a S-VHS-tape and saved on the PC. The digital analysis was performed using a special software to automatically and off-line evaluate the density of keratocytes in combination with the 3D-reconstruction. The software also corrected the background illumination and small axial jitter. After this procedure the keratocytes density and the 3D-reconstruction in 70 images of the z-scan were calculated. We examined 47 corneas of 25 healthy probands. The range of age was 25-56 years. Independent control evaluation of the video sequences were taken manually on an INDIGO HIGH IMPACT workstation.

By assign all keratocytes to the corneal measurement volume we found a averaged density of 15,730 cells/mm3 in the central cornea. The averaged thickness of the cornea was 0.556 mm. The control valuation of identical video-sequences on the workstation accomplished the same result of 16,000 keratocytes/mm3, also similar the result of the automatically measurement with the modified software.

This modification of the microscope is a promising in-vivo tool for optical pachymetry and quantitative examination of corneal microstructures. The stabilization effect of the low-vacuum suction cup system in the front of the microscope for computer-controlled valuation of the density profile of keratocytes and the 3D-reconstruction of a central corneal volume element has produced encouraging results. Characterization of pathophysiological changes in the distribution of keratocytes after excimer laser ablation for phototherapeutic or photorefractive keratectomy, for example, can be estimated without pain for the patients.