In Vivo Confocal Microscopy in the Patients With Cornea Farinata

Abstract

In vivo corneal confocal microscopy is useful for observing stromal abnormalities in cornea farinata. Further investigation of posterior stromal opacities using confocal microscopy may be useful to understand and differentiate various corneal conditions involving primarily deep stromal layers.

Confocal Microscopy of Corneal Dystrophies

“…They are best seen on retro-illumination and appear grey-brown to white in color. 30 Kobayashi et al 31 reported two cases with cornea farinata. Using IVCM, highly reflective small particles were observed in the cytoplasm of keratocytes in the deep stroma adjacent to the corneal endothelial layer.…”

In Vivo Confocal Microscopy of Combined Pre-Descemet Membrane Corneal Dystrophy and Fuchs Endothelial Dystrophy

“…Also, no evident abnormalities could be detected in Descemet membrane and endothelium level. [10][11][12][13][14] Another differential diagnosis includes fleck dystrophy, which is a rare autosomal dominant corneal stromal dystrophy with discrete opacities similar to those of cornea farinata or pre-Descemet dystrophy. However, the opacities are not limited to the posterior stroma but are found throughout the entire corneal stroma by slit-lamp biomicroscopy.…”

In Vivo Findings of the Bulbar/Palpebral Conjunctiva and Presumed Meibomian Glands by Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy

“…1 We and many others have previously demonstrated that in vivo whitelight corneal confocal microscopy provides noninvasive, realtime images with high resolution and contrast of all layers in both normal and diseased corneas. [2][3][4][5][6][7] However, confocal microscopy has so far been limited to investigations of the cornea. We have also recently demonstrated that the in vivo laser confocal microscope (Vivascope 1000, Lucid Inc., Henrietta, NY) can be used to observe the bulbar conjunctiva in both rabbits 8 and humans, 9 which could not be achieved by conventional white-light confocal microscopy.…”