Evaluation of the corneal endothelium by specular microscopy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to evaluate the corneal endothelium in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using a specular microscope. METHODS The right eyes of 64 patients with a COPD diagnosis and 65 healthy individuals were evaluated. Cell density (CD) (cell/mm2 ), corneal thickness (CT) (μ), hexagonal cell ratio (%), and coefficient of variation (cell area standard deviation/mean cell area, μm2 ) were analyzed by specular microscopy (SM). RESULTS The CT was significantly reduced in the COPD group compared with the control group (P = 0.021). Moreover, a significant difference was found between the COPD group and the control group in terms of corneal endothelial CD (P = 0.011), hexagonal cell ratio (P = 0.008), and coefficient of variation (P = 0.012). CONCLUSION The corneal endothelial structure was significantly deteriorated in patients with COPD compared with the control group. SM is a valuable method that could be used in treatment and follow-up of corneal endothelium in patients with COPD.