%0 Journal Article %J Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci %D 2015 %T Comparison of Standard Versus Wide-Field Composite Images of the Corneal Subbasal Layer by In Vivo Confocal Microscopy. %A Kheirkhah, Ahmad %A Muller, Rodrigo %A Mikolajczak, Janine %A Ren, Ai %A Kadas, Ella Maria %A Zimmermann, Hanna %A Pruess, Harald %A Paul, Friedemann %A Brandt, Alexander U %A Hamrah, Pedram %X

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether the densities of corneal subbasal nerves and epithelial immune dendritiform cells (DCs) are comparable between a set of three representative standard images of in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) and the wide-field mapped composite IVCM images. METHODS: This prospective, cross-sectional, and masked study included 110 eyes of 58 patients seen in a neurology clinic who underwent laser-scanning IVCM (Heidelberg Retina Tomograph 3) of the central cornea. Densities of subbasal corneal nerves and DCs were compared between the average of three representative standard images and the wide-field mapped composite images, which were reconstructed by automated mapping. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between the average of three representative standard images (0.16 mm2 each) and the wide-field composite images (1.29 ± 0.64 mm2) in terms of mean subbasal nerve density (17.10 ± 6.10 vs. 17.17 ± 5.60 mm/mm2, respectively, P = 0.87) and mean subbasal DC density (53.2 ± 67.8 vs. 49.0 ± 54.3 cells/mm2, respectively, P = 0.43). However, there were notable differences in subbasal nerve and DC densities between these two methods in eyes with very low nerve density or very high DC density. CONCLUSIONS: There are no significant differences in the mean subbasal nerve and DC densities between the average values of three representative standard IVCM images and wide-field mapped composite images. Therefore, these standard images can be used in clinical studies to accurately measure cellular structures in the subbasal layer.

%B Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci %V 56 %P 5801-7 %8 2015 Sep 1 %G eng %N 10 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26325419?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1167/iovs.15-17434