Correlation of histologic corneal endothelial cell counts with specular microscopic cell density.

The central endothelia of 48 eye bank corneas from donors ranging in age from 5 weeks to 88 years were photographed using in vitro specular microscopy. Computer-assisted morphometric analysis of the size and shape of endothelial cells was performed, and cell density was calculated. Histologic examination of the corneas after specular microscopy determined endothelial cell counts using x40 objective magnification. The mean endothelial cell counts from five different high-power fields were calculated. Results showed that there is a direct correlation between cell number and specular microscopy cell density (r = .91 and Spearman rank correlation, 0.69; both significant at P less than .01). A nomogram was developed to estimate corneal endothelial cell density from high-power field cell counts of pathologic specimens.