TY - JOUR
T1 - An In Vivo Confocal Microscopic Study of Corneal Nerve Morphology in Unilateral Keratoconus
AU - Pahuja, Natasha Kishore
AU - Shetty, Rohit
AU - Nuijts, Rudy M. M. A.
AU - Agrawal, Aarti
AU - Ghosh, Arkasubhra
AU - Jayadev, Chaitra
AU - Nagaraja, Harsha
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Purpose. To study the corneal nerve morphology and its importance in unilateral keratoconus. Materials and Methods. In this prospective cross-sectional study, 33 eyes of 33 patients with keratoconus in one eye (Group 3) were compared with the other normal eye of the same patients (Group 2) and 30 eyes of healthy patients (Group 1). All patients underwent detailed ophthalmic examination followed by topography with Pentacam HR and in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM). Five images obtained with IVCM were analyzed using an automated CCmetrics software version 1.0 for changes in subbasal plexus of nerves. Results. Intergroup comparison showed statistically significant reduction in corneal nerve fiber density (CNFD) and length (CNFL) in Group 3 as compared to Group 1 (p <0.001 and p = 0.001, resp.) and Group 2 (p = 0.01 and p = 0.02, resp.). Though corneal nerve fiber length, diameter, area, width, corneal nerve branch density, and corneal total branch density were found to be higher in decentered cones, only the corneal nerve branch density (CNBD) was found to be statistically significant (p <0.01) as compared to centered cones. Conclusion. Quantitative changes in the corneal nervemorphology can be used as an imaging marker for the early diagnosis of keratoconus before the onset of refractive or topography changes.
AB - Purpose. To study the corneal nerve morphology and its importance in unilateral keratoconus. Materials and Methods. In this prospective cross-sectional study, 33 eyes of 33 patients with keratoconus in one eye (Group 3) were compared with the other normal eye of the same patients (Group 2) and 30 eyes of healthy patients (Group 1). All patients underwent detailed ophthalmic examination followed by topography with Pentacam HR and in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM). Five images obtained with IVCM were analyzed using an automated CCmetrics software version 1.0 for changes in subbasal plexus of nerves. Results. Intergroup comparison showed statistically significant reduction in corneal nerve fiber density (CNFD) and length (CNFL) in Group 3 as compared to Group 1 (p <0.001 and p = 0.001, resp.) and Group 2 (p = 0.01 and p = 0.02, resp.). Though corneal nerve fiber length, diameter, area, width, corneal nerve branch density, and corneal total branch density were found to be higher in decentered cones, only the corneal nerve branch density (CNBD) was found to be statistically significant (p <0.01) as compared to centered cones. Conclusion. Quantitative changes in the corneal nervemorphology can be used as an imaging marker for the early diagnosis of keratoconus before the onset of refractive or topography changes.
U2 - 10.1155/2016/5067853
DO - 10.1155/2016/5067853
M3 - Article
C2 - 26904679
SN - 2314-6133
VL - 2016
JO - BioMed Research International
JF - BioMed Research International
M1 - 5067853
ER -