Microscopia confocal en córneas de cien ojos sanos

objective: this paper is aimed at analyzing the corneal cellular structures through confoscan s4-aided confocal microscopy in apparently healthy corneas. methods: a prospective longitudinal study of 100 healthy eyes from practicing doctors, and from patients who had attended the corneal service at “ramón pando ferrer” cuban institute of ophthalmology in havana since may 2007 was conducted. both eyes of participating doctors were examined whereas the non-affected eye was examined in the patients. a total of 50 cases with no corneal disease notified from may 2007 to may 2008 were considered. results: the 100 studied eyes came from apparently healthy patients, and the pachymetry values of 64 of them were above the average. since they were healthy corneas, the 3 types of epithelial cells as well as the keratocytes were present in almost all the patients and at different depths of the corneal stroma, respectively. most of the studied eyes had endothelial cell counts above 2 500, a figure within the normal range, and there were nerve fibers in each of their layers. conclusion: confocal microscope is a new tool that allows in vivo observation of corneal histology and thus supplements conventional biomicroscopy observations. it contributes to better understanding of corneal pathology, with a view to prophylactically and therapeutically acting upon corneal pathologies during their follow-up and evolution.