CLINICAL MICROSCOPY OF THE CORNEA UTILIZING OPTICAL SECTIONING AND A HIGH-NUMERICAL-APERTURE OBJECTIVE

A doublet contact element was added to a long-working-distance objecti ve to increase the numerical aperture 0.75 and to maintain the focus d uring in vivo examination of the eye. Optical sectioning by use of con focal slits permits visualization of weakly scattering structures with in the cornea. With photographic film and a 1/60-s exposure time to li mit the effect of eye movement, an effective optical section half-thic kness of approximately 20 mum was realized. Structures observed in the cornea include epithelial cells (surface, wing, and basal cells), ner ve-fiber bundles in the subepithelial region, keratocytes and inflamma tory cells in the stroma, and endothelial cells.