Abstract:
PURPOSE: To investigate the configuration of the living human corneal subbasal nerve plexus in paired eyes of normal subjects using in vivo confocal microscopy. METHODS: Laser scanning in vivo confocal microscopy was performed on both corneas of healthy human subjects, and a grid fixation pattern facilitated examination of consistent areas of central to midperipheral cornea. Macromedia/Adobe Freehand 10 was used to manually arrange images into contiguous montages. The subbasal nerve density and overall patterns were analyzed. RESULTS: Both eyes of 6 subjects (3 women and 3 men, aged between 25 and 36 years) were examined. In all subjects, the subbasal nerve plexus exhibited a clockwise whorl configuration inferior to the central cornea. The mean subbasal nerve density at the whorl was 39.17 ± 4.95 mm/mm and 41.36 ± 4.19 mm/mm in the right and left eyes, respectively. There was no significant difference in the nerve density between the eyes (P = 0.61). Bland and Altman analysis confirmed high intraobserver repeatability and moderate interobserver repeatability. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals the marked similarities between the corneal subbasal nerve plexus configuration in the right and left eyes of the living human cornea, highlighting that the typical mirror-image symmetry in corneal topographic patterns is not obeyed in respect to corneal innervation and that a clockwise orientation of the subbasal plexus is typically encountered. There was no statistical difference in the subbasal nerve density between the eyes.
