Corneal endothelial changes associated with herpetic stromal keratitis.

Abstract

Wide-field specular microscopy was performed on both eyes of 33 patients with unilateral herpetic stromal keratitis. Endothelial changes were quantitated by computerized morphometric analysis of individual cells. In the 16 patients with disciform keratitis, the corneal endothelium of the affected eyes showed no difference in cell density but demonstrated significant increases of variation in cell size (polymegathism) and shape (pleomorphism) when compared to the cells in the fellow unaffected eyes. The eyes with keratouveitis (17 patients), however, had marked polymegathism and pleomorphism of the endothelium and a distinctly lower endothelial cell density (mean, 19%) than the healthy fellow eyes.