CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY USING OBLIQUE SECTIONS FOR MEASUREMENT OF CORNEALEPITHELIAL THICKNESS IN CONSCIOUS HUMANS

Purpose: Thickness measurements by confocal microscopy in conscious hu man subjects may be liable to error as a result of instability of the eye or instrument. Our aim was to evaluate a technique which was expec ted to be less sensitive to such problems. Method: Thickness of cornea l epithelium was determined from oblique confocal sections through cor nea. A contact lens of known thickness worn by subjects was used to ca librate images. Results: There were mo lavers in images which could ha ve corresponded to the stromal/epithelial interface. The mean result i n each subject ranged from 38 to 53 mu m using the more superficial la yer and 46 to 60 mu m using the deeper one. The smaller values gave th e distance between the epithelial surface and the subepithelial nerve plexus and thus seemed to correspond to epithelial thickness. Conclusi ons: Measurements of epithelial thickness by our new method are compar able with results of earlier studies.